Maternal health
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© UNICEF/EAP00052 |
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Health workers talk of the importance of nutrition with mothers in Indonesia |
The Issues
A mother’s health is crucial to a child’s survival, growth and development. A woman’s health also determines whether she survives pregnancy and childbirth. But most of our region is far from achieving the Millennium Development Goal of cutting maternal mortality ratios by three-quarters by 2015.
- Maternal deaths mirror our region’s health disparities. In Thailand, the maternal mortality rate is 24 deaths per 100,000 live births while Timor Leste’s is 800. Disparities also exist within national borders: China’s maternal mortality rate ranges from a low of 10 to a high of 401 in Tibet.
- Women are dying because they lack access to even basic emergency obstetric care. Many women in our region give birth without the assistance of skilled attendants. When unexpected complications arise, these women are unable to access the care they need.
- Undernutrition heightens the risk of dying during pregnancy. Alarming numbers of women in our region suffer anaemia, which makes them susceptible to heart failure, shock and infection. Underweight and short-statured mothers are more prone to obstructed labour.
- Gender discrimination is at the heart of the problem. Women and girls do not have power over their lives because they lack equal status and access to education, employment, nutrition, safety and health.
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© UNICEF/KOR00003 |
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Looking after the health of mothers and children in DPR Korea |
UNICEF in Action
UNICEF pursues the following strategies to reduce maternal deaths in our region:
- Introducing preventative and emergency obstetric care services, including early diagnosis and treatment of diseases such as malaria, TB, HIV and AIDS, urinary tract infections, worm infestations and anaemia, and improving women’s nutrition;
- Improving reproductive health care and education, including encouraging women to wait two to three years between children;
- Preventing adolescent pregnancies, which affect the health and survival of both the girl and her baby;
- Targeting young women with health and nutrition programmes to better prepare them for pregnancy and parenthood; and
- Improving the status of women and girls so they are empowered to make decisions for themselves.
