Key websites

Maternal and newborn health

This Save the Children publication reports on child mortality rates in developing countries. The report includes Child Survival Progress Rankings of 60 countries, which together account for 94 per cent of all child deaths worldwide. According to the report, Iraq’s child mortality rate has increased by 150 per cent since 1990: 122,000 Iraqi children died in 2005 before reaching their fifth birthday.

Maternal and newborn health (MNH) is a cause for serious concern in developing countries. Rates of morbidity and mortality in pregnant women, mothers and newborns remain shockingly high, particularly among poorer groups. This section of the resource guide provides information on the status and determinants of MNH, why and where health systems are failing to tackle these problems and what actions are needed to improve the situation.

Increasing access to appropriately skilled and timely care is key to reducing the toll of maternal and neonatal deaths. Failures occur at household and community level, through poverty, gender bias and lack of awareness of the needs of pregnant women. They occur at service delivery level through lack of accessible, well functioning, staffed and resourced facilities, and at policy and systems level through poor planning, management and supervision, and lack of political commitment. Attention also needs to be given to cost effective ways of measuring and monitoring maternal mortality and morbidity.

The Millenium Development Goals on maternal health and child mortality have helped to concentrate efforts to improve MNH. International and national human rights and health advocacy is playing a major role. At programme level, efforts are being made through different kinds of finance and aid instruments to ensure MNH is given higher priority in health planning and resource allocation.

Latest Additions

Strategies for reducing maternal mortality: towards achieving MDG 5: ( The Lancet , 2006); The authors assert that the fifth Millennium Development Goal to reduce maternal mortality by two-thirds by 2015 will best be achieved by adopting a core strategy of intrapartum care based in ...
Cost effective methods of reducing neonatal deaths in Nepal: ( J. Borghi;B. Thapa;D. Osrin / The Lancet , 2005); Of the 4 million neonatal deaths worldwide every year, most occur in developing countries. In Nepal, the burden of neonatal mortality is especially high, and over 90 percent of births take place at ho...
How do women feel about their maternal health in Malawi?: ( M. Rosato;C.W. Mwansambo;P.N. Kazembe / The Lancet , 2006); Improvements in preventive and care-seeking behaviours to reduce maternal mortality in rural Africa depend on the knowledge and attitudes of women and communities. Surveys have indicated a poor awaren...
“Too old” is a significant risk factor in maternal mortality: ( Mizanur Rahman;Julie DaVanzo;Abdur Razzaque / Pathfinder International , 2009); This working paper, published by Pathfinder International, investigates the association between maternal mortality and demographic, programmatic, and socioeconomic factors using longitudinal data o...
400 million indigenous people have low standards of health: ( M. Gracey;M. King / The Lancet , 2009); This article, published by The Lancet, notes that almost 400 million of the world's indigenous people have low standards of health. This poor health is associated with poverty, malnutrition, overcr...