Uganda: Motherhood Still Not Safe for Many Women

16 October 2007
opinion

Kampala — This week the world celebrates 20 years of the Safe Motherhood Initiative at the Women Deliver conference in London from October 18-20. Launched in Nairobi in 1987, the Safe Motherhood Initiative aimed at reducing the number of women who die in pregnancy and childbirth.

Every year about 600,000 women in the world die due to pregnancy and childbirth related complications. Some 99% of these deaths occur in the developing countries of Africa and Asia. In Uganda, the maternal mortality ratio (the number of women who die during pregnancy, childbirth and six weeks after ending pregnancy) stands at 435 deaths per 100,000 live births per year, according to the 2006 Uganda Demographic Health Survey (UDHS). This translates into about 6,000 women dying every year due to preventable pregnancy and childbirth-related complications, that is, about one taxi full of pregnant mothers crashing and killing all on board every day.

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