Health spotlight for International Women's Day

Pregnancy risk

As International Women's Day is celebrated, a coalition of campaign groups are using the day to draw attention to the fact that pregnant women in developing countries face the same risk of death as women in the UK did 100 years ago. The group are calling for action to reduce the amount of deaths during pregnancy.

They say improving mothers' health is "the most off-target" of the UN's eight Millennium Development Goals.

For every 100,000 live births in developing countries, 450 women die during pregnancy or labour.

Global figures show that approximately one woman dies every minute - mainly because of preventable causes related to pregnancy. Women in sub-Saharan African and south Asian countries are most at risk, and very little progress has been made in the past decade, Amnesty.org reports.

The coalition, which includes White Ribbon Alliance, Amnesty International and Oxfam, says that in 1910, 355 women died per 100,000 live births in England and Wales. In Scotland and the Irish Republic, the rate was higher - at 572 and 531 respectively.

In Ghana today the rate of pregnancy-related deaths is 560, while in Chad it is 1500. The rate in the UK is now 14 deaths per 100,000.

The UN says although it is difficult to get accurate figures on maternal mortality, very little progress has been made in sub-Saharan Africa - and deaths in southern Asia "remain unacceptably high," the BBC report.

Brigid McConville, the director of White Ribbon Alliance, which campaigns for safe motherhood, said: "There still remains a long way to go for the protection and security of pregnant women and their newborn children."

Improvements in women's health

In some countries, progress has been made in improving women's health. In Mongolia, reduced deaths were achieved by educating women about the signs of complications in pregnancy and by helping them travel to special homes where they could wait to give birth.

Many of the medical problems are easily preventable if, for example, women have access to skilled health workers who can treat infections and use drugs to prevent hemorrhage.

The Women Deliver conference in Washington DC in June aims to put increased pressure on world leaders to tackle the problems.

Jodie Humphries

Jodie Humphries graduated from Bath Spa University with a BA Hons in Creative Writing in 2008. She has worked for GDS Publishing for the digital group since July 2009. She has previous experience with writing for the web, running her own website since April 2007.

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