Building Safe Motherhood Champions in India’s Parliament

March 16, 2007—Every seven minutes a woman in India dies of a pregnancy-related cause.

The White Ribbon Alliance India (WRAI) believes this fact is worthy of national attention and worldwide concern. Each woman’s death is a tragedy, and represents more than the loss of one life. Her death affects her nation, community and family.

Studies show that when an infant loses her or his mother, she or he is up to 10 times more likely to die within the first two years of life. For girls who survive, the loss can be even more detrimental to their future. Girls often have to drop out of school to take care of younger siblings and their family.

The economic effects of a woman dying in child birth means that families often suffer financially because of a decrease in income. Each mother’s death impacts her community and country because they lose that woman’s social and economic contributions.

According to the White Ribbon Alliance, maternal deaths are preventable. The solutions are within reach and include:

• Empowering women with the knowledge and information about maternal and reproductive health;
• Delaying marriage so adolescents do not give birth before they are physically ready;
• Educating families and communities on care for pregnant women and how to recognize danger signs; and
• Ensuring availability of emergency obstetric care at health facilities

The WRAI was founded to help facilitate these steps. The goals of the WRAI are to raise awareness about safe motherhood, build alliances to effect changes, and act as a catalyst for action.

PK Hota, Secretary of Health and Family Welfare, lighting a ceremonial candle at the National Safe Motherhood Day, 2006, inaugural ceremonies in India.

To translate this political support into action, India's White Ribbon Alliance in collaboration with UNICEF/India is planning to hold a briefing for parliamentarians on safe motherhood during the next session of the Parliament. Parliamentarians also will be presented with a checklist to evaluate policy changes that could enable better maternal health care.

Parliamentarians also will be asked to sign on as "champions" for maternal health, committing to work to improve the current situation of maternal health in India.

CEDPA/India helped form the WRAI in 1999 to bring critical attention and action to the need to make motherhood safer, and, currently, acts as the secretariat for the alliance providing technical assistance and leading advocacy and communications strategies.

Find out more about CEDPA’s work in India and the WRAI.

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