Achieving Maternal Health
By Adrienne Germain
This month, a study published in the The Lancet reported a decline in maternal mortality. While this is cause for optimism, we cannot afford to be complacent: more than 300,000 women still die senseless deaths and suffer disabilities each year due to preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth, and in some countries, maternal deaths are on the rise. Many of these girls and women give birth and die at home, often alone, in fear and agony. Or, they die in substandard medical facilities ill-equipped to deal with problems that are routinely managed for women in rich countries and for rich women in their own countries. Saving women's lives in childbirth requires relatively inexpensive and known interventions at the clinical level - not fancy hospitals, new technologies or scientific breakthroughs. This decline does give us reason to be optimistic, but with political will, we can and should continue to make maternal health a global priority. And we must also make it easier for women and girls to decide to use, and actually reach, these services.
