CSW 54- Maternal Mortality- a grave issue for women and society

Maternal Health MDG 5 - No Woman Should Die Giving Life- Workshop at CSW 54

A very interesting panel of speakers from Unicef and UNFPA headed by Ambassador Chowdhurry focused on Millenium Development Goal (MDG)MDG 5 on the topic of Maternal Mortality and a new target for MDG #5: By 2015 we will have achieved Universal Access to Reproductive Health.

Some current facts are

1 in 7 women develop complications during delivery where medical attention is needed.

1 woman dies every minute in pregnancy or childbirth.

There is a need for 1 health center per every 100,000 people and 1 district hospital per every 1/2 million.

They have been working to strengthen national capacities so that governments can deal with their own maternal health issues. The panel commented that they know where the bulk of the problems exists in Asia and Africa, so they know where the deaths are occurring.

The biggest challenge is lack of funding. They basically know what they need to do and where to do it. It all boils down to lack of funds.

There are some quick low cost wins -

-Ensuring family planning in every community - distribution of condoms

-Ensuring that magnesium sulfate is available in every facility - regular table salt

-Changing midwives ability to perform more life saving strategies on women.



Andrea T. Mills- SI Representative to the UN New York