Groups Unite for Safe Motherhood

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), in conjunction with six partner organizations, is spearheading a new interagency strategy to reduce maternal mortality in Latin America and the Caribbean.

With the theme "Safe Motherhood: Every Woman's Right," the United Nations Population Fund, the United Nations Children's Fund, the Population Council, the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development and PAHO have developed a joint strategy based on shared experiences of how to reduce these highly preventable deaths.

The new strategy was developed to provide new momentum for reaching one of the key Millennium Development Goals, that of reducing maternal mortality by three-fourths by the year 2015. In the medium term, the plan aims at reducing maternal mortality rates to below 100 deaths per 100,000 live births in every country of the region. It also seeks to reduce disparities between urban and rural areas while targeting the most vulnerable women: those with less education, poor women and those living in indigenous communities or remote areas.

Currently in Latin America and the Caribbean, an estimated 22,000 women die each year from pregnancy-related complications, and the majority of these deaths are preventable. The region's overall rate of maternal mortality is 190 per 100,000 live births, but rates vary significantly across countries. Chile has 23 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births while Bolivia has 390 per 100,000 and Haiti, 523 per 100,000. In Canada, the rate is 4 per 100,000.

The new interagency strategy, based on 12 years of experience, focuses on:

• Assuring that every woman has access to childbirth attended by qualified personnel.
• Promoting actions to reduce maternal mortality at the national and municipal levels.
• Expanding partnerships and alliances.
• Ensuring financial support for all projects related to maternal mortality.

A central tenet of the new strategy is that investing in maternal health will not only reduce maternal mortality and maternal and child disability but also contribute to better health, quality of life and greater equity for women, their families and their communities.