NEW YORK, 2. October: A global coalition of governments and organizations has launched a new campaign to drastically improve pre- and post-natal health care in countries with inadequate maternity care (mødrepleje).
Called “Deliver Now” – a reference to the pledge made by 189 world leaders meeting at the United Nations seven years ago to reduce child deaths by two-thirds and maternal deaths by three-quarters by 2015 – it brings together local government agencies, civil society, media and others to allocate existing health resources more effectively.
The campaign will focus especially on countries such as India, which by itself accounts for a staggering 25 percent of the worlds child deaths and 20 percent of maternal deaths.
To this end an upcoming “Women Deliver Conference” in London on October 18-20 will focus on the topic.
Women Deliver will be a global conference of some 1.500 world leaders who will focus on strengthening health systems and creating political will to save the lives and improve the health of women, mothers and newborn babies around the world. The theme of Women Deliver is Invest in Women: It Pays!
Halfway toward the deadline to achieve the UNs millennium development goals, more than 10 million mothers and children still die every year, mostly from preventable causes. Roughly 4 million newborns die in their first four weeks of their life and 3 million die in the first week.
– The cause of womens and childrens health has remained in the shadows for too long and been neglected on the political agenda, said Dr. Francisco Songane, director of the partnership.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 42 percent of pregnant women around the world experience some sort of complication; 15 percent of those issues are life-threatening.
These problems mostly occur in developing countries: 95 percent of all maternal and newborn deaths worldwide occur in 75 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
According to recent research, at least 7 million of these deaths could be prevented by expanding access to health systems.
– We need more action and more political will. It is a scandal that half a million mothers die each year in pregnancy or when giving birth, said Jens Stoltenberg, the prime minister of Norway, who spoke at a recent UN panel discussion.
– Millions of women and children can be saved with modest means. We know what to do and it isn’t expensive, added Stoltenberg, whose government plans to spend a billion US dollar (5,3 milliarder DKR) during the next 10 years on maternal and child health programs around the world.
These relatively simple measures include regular vaccinations, breastfeeding, access to antibiotics and the help of a skilled birth attendant.
The first specific country programs will start in 2008 in India and Tanzania, which currently faces a critical shortage of qualified health workers to assist during childbirth.
Some 54 percent of women receive no skilled attendance; as a result, a woman dies of pregnancy-related complications there every hour of every day.
Aparajita Gogoi, the national coordinator of the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood, noted: -The victims of pregnancy-related deaths are poor and politically powerless. It is the NGOs that have to talk to these people and to enlighten them.
In addition to Norway, France, Canada, Germany and Britain are also supporting the campaign. Stoltenberg expressed his hope that more donor countries will become engaged.
At least 9 billion dollar a year is needed to meet the basic health care needs of women and children, according to experts. As of 2004, only 2 billion – less than a quarter of what is needed – was available to support such services in developing countries.
The head of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, agreed that stronger leadership and commitment to make womens health a priority is critical. – Most important is that we work all together to achieve the goal, she said.
Good health also requires a sound environment and commitment to upholding womens fundamental rights.
– We have to do something about the low status of women in many societies,” said Margaret Chan, director general of the WHO, adding: – They have to be empowered: They should be able to fight for their rights.
She also noted that air, water and food, which are affected by the growing problem of climate change, are fundamental determinants of health. Chan expressed her hope that “politicians think further recognizing not only climate change’s impact on the environment and economy but also that on health.”
Rosangela Berman Bieler, a journalist and executive director of the Inter-American Institute on Disability and Inclusive Development, urged that efforts to expand access to health care take into account the special needs of the disabled.
– There will be no results when people with disabilities are not involved. I hope that there will develop a society that includes everyone, said the 49-year-old mother, who has been quadriplegic (lammet på alle 4 lemmer) since suffering an automobile accident in 1976, when she was 19.
Kilder: Inter Press Service og The Push Journal
Background
Every minute of every day, a woman dies needlessly in pregnancy or childbirth, most in the developing world. Ten million women are lost in each generation – our mothers and sisters, daughters and grandmothers, wives and partners, friends and neighbors.
Fully 42 percent of all pregnancies worldwide suffer complications, and in 8
percent of all pregnancies, the complications are life-threatening. Huge disparities exist in womens survival rates between rich and poor countries, and between the rich and the poor in all countries.
In sub-Saharan Africa, one in every 16 women will die in pregnancy or childbirth.
In Afghanistan and Sierra Leone, such complications kill one in every six women.
2007 is a critical year for advancing the health and rights of women.
The “Women Deliver” conference in London marks the 20th anniversary of the launch of the global Safe Motherhood Initiative. Its research led to impressive gains in many places.
We now know how to save the lives of most of those who die needlessly worldwide.
But maternal and newborn health still receives inadequate attention and funding.
In 2000, world leaders agreed on Millennium Development Goal no. 5: improve
maternal health (and its target of cutting maternal mortality by 75 percent by 2015).
In 2006, world leaders recommended adding a target of universal access to
reproductive health by 2015.
This is often called the heart of the MDGs, because if it fails, the other MDGs will
too. Women Deliver comes at a point halfway to 2015.
The number of women who die in pregnancy and childbirth (about 500,000 per year) and the number of newborns who die before they are one month old (about 4 million per year from mainly preventable causes) have not dropped significantly since 1993, in large part due to lack of political will.
The leading killers:
Haemorrhage: uncontrolled bleeding can kill a healthy woman in two hours. Most
developing countries lack adequate supplies of safe blood, especially in rural areas.
Eclampsia (high blood pressure): this condition is often undiagnosed until too late.
Unsafe abortion: one-third of all pregnancies worldwide are unintended, leading to
20 million unsafe abortions every year. The result: nearly 70.000 maternal deaths
and millions more disabling injuries and infections.
Sepsis (infections): women worldwide suffer infections from unsanitary conditions,
but most U.S. women receive fast diagnosis and treatment unavailable to the poor.
Obstructed labour: women’s bodies stunted by malnutrition or anemia, or those of
girls may be too small for the baby’s head to pass through the birth canal.
Practical solutions:
Access to comprehensive reproductive health services, including family planning
and abortion-related services;
Education that informs women and girls about their bodies and gives them options in life beyond childbearing; and care by skilled midwives, nurses or doctors during pregnancy and childbirth, as well as emergency obstetric care and care for mothers and newborns after delivery.
Experts agree: with increased political will and adequate financial investment,
most women and infants can survive so that their families, communities and
nations can thrive.
Yderligere oplysninger hos Mette Østergaard Strandlod, Information Associate, UNFPA Nordic Office, tlf. 35 46 70 37, Fax: 35 46 70 18, og web: www.unfpa.org/europe
