Why Global Maternal Health Matters

Mar. 20, 2009 — Leaders in maternal health and development experts gathered at Capitol Hill for a briefing hosted by the House Committee on Foreign Affairs that focused on global maternal health and why it matters.

With one woman dying during pregnancy or complications of childbirth every minute of every day, maternal health needs to be brought into focus. A complete picture of the status of maternal health around the world, and an understanding of the simple interventions that can save lives, is necessary for governments and funders to make educated and informed decisions.

There is an apparent imbalance in a world where one in seven women in Afghanistan die giving birth and, on average, the number of maternal deaths is one in 2,800 in most of Europe and North America.

The good news: evidence shows we can turn these numbers around with the right programs and funding. Malaysia has already reached the millennium development goal of reducing maternal mortality by more than three quarters. Honduras has cut its rate by 40 percent.

At the briefing co-hosted by the Global Health Council and CEDPA, a highly qualified panel provided the audience with information on maternal health, its consequences and how it is affected by conflict.

Speakers included Joanne Manrique of the Global Health Council, Ann Starrs of Family Care International, Koki K. Agarwal of JHPIEGO and CEDPA alumna Maha Feraigon Babiker of Sudanese Women General Union (pictured above).

Pearl Alice Marsh reiterated the need for foreign aid to be transformed into a more effective platform than the current stovepipes.

The first in a series of four, the briefing was organized by Pearl Alice Marsh of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. She described the series as a chance to “create an understanding about why funding needs to be removed from stovepipes.” Foreign aid is more effective when it provides integrated seamless services that meet several needs.

“We need to create an awareness in communities that maternal health is an opportunity to reach women about other issues,” explained Koki Agrawal, director of the ACCESS project. She shared her experience in the field and the importance of training traditional birth attendants to recognize when further medical intervention is necessary.

CEDPA alumna Maha H. Feraigon painted a picture of the difficulties women in conflict zones face to give birth. Maha, who is from conflict-ridden Sudan, emphasized that women in these areas often do not have access to medical facilities because of a lack of infrastructure.

If they do reach the facilities, the women often find that they lack electricity, water, medicine, equipment or enough trained medical staff. These conditions are common throughout Africa, which accounts for about 50 percent of the world’s maternal death and only about 3 percent of the world’s maternal health care workers.

Ann Starrs, president of Family Care International, provided the audience with a comparison that hit home. “I, too, had a common birth complication that obviously I survived, but if I had been in the African bush giving birth, I would have died. My child would have died.”

Pearl Alice Marsh closed the briefing with a simple but important thought. “How little an intervention it takes, in comparison to what we are spending in other areas, to save a life.”

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