Husbands have been advised to be closer to their wives during pregnancy than at other times as this would reduce the rate of pregnant women's deaths.

It has been discovered that the high mortality rate during child delivery is also caused by a tendency by many people in the society, especially men, to take pregnancy for granted.

This was said recently by Ms Gemma Akilimali, an activist, during the launch of a 'Piga debe campaign' at the Economic and Social Research Foundation (ESRF) offices in Dar es Salaam.

The campaign focuses on poverty eradication and reproductive health.

In her presentation, Ms Akilimali said investigations into causes of pregnant women's deaths should be extended beyond hospitals to look at how the society takes care of women.

"It is not always that nurses have to be blamed for the deaths,"she said. She explained that the health budget between 2007 and 2008 showed that there was a decrease of 44 per cent in allocations for health centres.

This gave a great burden to the health centres, hence making them fail to give pregnant women proper care and other services, she said.

She said carelessness by husbands and segregation by members of the public were other factors that immensely contributed to pregnant women's deaths.

Discussing the matter, Dr Avemaria Semakafu from the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) urged the organisations which attended the meeting to involve common women during the campaign.

She said the Government should also think seriously about the welfare of professionals in the health sector as that was responsible for doctors seeking greener pastures elsewhere.

The 'Piga debe' campaign has been launched in Africa under the United Nations Millenium Campaign (UNMC).

This was after discovering some weaknesses in the third and fifth Millenium Development Goals among the eight.