CAPE TOWN – Leading global health experts, policy-makers and parliamentarians convened in Cape Town last week to address the urgent need for accelerated progress to reduce maternal, newborn and child deaths, if internationally-agreed targets are to be met.

Every minute a woman dies due to complications in pregnancy or
childbirth, adding up to half a million women dying every year. Another
10-15 million women suffer serious or long-lasting illnesses or
disabilities.

“No woman should die giving life,” said UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid.
“To have a healthy society, you have to have healthy mothers.”

In many countries, however, progress in maternal health has been slow.
In some, the situation has actually deteriorated over the last 20 years.

A new report released today by two United Nations agencies puts the number of people living with HIV at about 33.2 million, down from last year’s estimate of 39.5 million, attributing the decrease to more accurate data collection and analysis.

World leaders have called for a halt to the needless deaths of 10 million women and girls who die each generation during pregnancy and childbirth, and four million newborn babies who die every year.

This was the main resolve of the leaders that included 100 cabinet ministers and UN officials when they met at an anti-maternal mortality conference dubbed “Women Deliver” that held in London recently.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 16 (IPS) – In this 21st century, when medical science and gender empowerment are rising progressively, “no woman should die giving life”, declares Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, executive director of the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA).

“It is unacceptable that one woman dies every minute during pregnancy and childbirth when proven interventions exist,” she adds. “Millions of lives are at stake, and we must act now.”