Maternal Health Appeal
Help UNICEF save women's and children's lives.
Every minute a woman dies in pregnancy or childbirth – over 500,000 deaths every year. And every year over one million newborns die within their first 24 hours of life for lack of quality care.
This alarming disparity represents one of the greatest indicators of the gulf between rich and poor in our world today and some of our closest neighbours are suffering the most.
Helping our neighbours
Pregnancy and childbirth should be a time of joy for parents and family but in many developing countries it is also a time of great risk to health and even survival. UNICEF’s 2009 State of the World’s Children report reveals that a mother in Timor-Leste has a one in 35 chance of dying in childbirth or from pregnancy complications compared to Australian women who face a one in 13,300 risk. Countries including Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands also suffer similarly high rates of maternal deaths.
Why are mothers dying?
Most maternal deaths are caused by obstetric complications, anaemia (exacerbated by malaria), HIV and other conditions that increase the risk of haemorrhage. Newborns are threatened by infections (pneumonia, tetanus and diarrhoea), asphyxia and preterm births.
Fortunately, the vast majority of maternal and newborn deaths can be prevented - up to 80 percent of maternal deaths could be averted if women had access to essential maternity and basic healthcare services. Both mothers and infants are vulnerable in the days and weeks after birth – a critical time for life-saving interventions, such as post-natal visits, proper hygiene, and counselling about the danger signs of maternal health.
While many developing countries have made excellent progress improving their child survival rate in recent years, there has been less headway in reducing maternal mortality. Improving maternal health and child mortality is essential if we are to meet the Millennium Development goals, particularly those relating to women and children.
Achieving Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5
In late 2008 UNICEF jointly pledged (with the World Health Organization, UNFPA and World Bank) to intensify support to countries to achieve Millennium Development Goal 5 To Improve Maternal Health — the MDG showing the least progress.
During the next five years, UNICEF will enhance support to the countries with the highest maternal mortality by strengthening their health systems to achieve the two MDG 5 targets of reducing the maternal mortality ratio by 75 per cent and achieving universal access to reproductive health by 2015. These efforts will also contribute to achieving MDG 4 To Reduce Child Mortality.
Please support UNICEF as we work with governments and civil society to strengthen national capacity to:
- Conduct needs assessments and ensure that health plans are MDG–driven and performance–based;
- Cost national plans and rapidly mobilise required resources;
- Scale-up quality health services to ensure universal access to reproductive health, especially for family planning, skilled attendance at delivery and emergency obstetric and newborn care, ensuring linkages with HIV prevention and treatment;
- Address the urgent need for skilled health workers, particularly midwives;
- Address financial barriers to access, especially for the poorest;
- Tackle the root causes of maternal mortality and morbidity, including gender inequality, low access to education — especially for girls — child marriage and adolescent pregnancy;
- Strengthen monitoring and evaluation systems.
Your donation helps improve women’s and children’s lives.
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