International Women’s Day: a call for reduced childbirth risks

March 8, 2010 by Shawn Douglas
Filed under: News

On this one hundredth International Women’s Day, a coalition of UK campaign groups is calling for global reductions in pregnancy and childbirth risks.

In conjunction with the one hundredth anniversary of International Women’s Day, a coalition of the U.K.’s Amnesty International, Mumsnet, Oxfam, Save the Children and the White Ribbon Alliance have called on world leaders to put greater emphasis on the risks currently posed to mothers and children alike.

The coalition noted that worldwide, an average of 450 women die for every 100,000 live births. The group compared this rate to the 355 female deaths per 100,000 live births in England and Wales in 1910, the year of the first International Women’s Day.

In Ghana, the rate of deaths during live birth is 560 per 100,000, and in Chad it’s as high as 1,500 per 100,000.

“There still remains a long way to go for the protection and security of pregnant women and their newborn children,” said Brigid McConville, director of White Ribbon Alliance.

The coalition is calling many of those deaths “preventable”, and it points to evidence out of Mongolia, Nepal and Rwanda to show that rates can be decreased. With increases in education about signs of pregnancy complications, trained health workers and hemorrhage prevention drugs, death rates have dropped in those countries.

The awareness campaign ties in directly to the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals, a group of eight goals that most countries have agreed must be tackled by 2015. Also tied into these goals is the desire to prevent deaths from abortion complications and to make contraception more readily available.

Amnesty International’s U.K. director Kate Allen said: “It’s not impossible to cut back on the rate of maternal deaths globally. It has clearly been possible here in the U.K.; we need to demonstrate that same level of commitment world wide.”

“The U.K. has so far shown commitment to providing adequate resources. However, this must be combined with greater political will, not only in the U.K. but globally to ensure that a pregnant woman is not denied her basic right to healthcare.”

Events are expected to continue throughout the week. Visit www.internationalwomensday.com to learn more.