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UNICEF calls for mobilization against maternal mortality

Wednesday, 19 November 1997: At a gathering in Bangladesh to commemorate women who have died needlessly of complications during pregnancy or childbirth, UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy today called for a concerted international mobilization to combat maternal mortality.

Ms. Bellamy stressed that the neglect that contributes to maternal mortality should be seen as just one form of discrimination and violence against women and girls.

"We must reduce the violence of maternal death," she told the gathering this week.

The commemorative service in Manikganj, a rural district west of the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, included a display of multi-coloured banners that carried that names of over 600 girls and women under 35 who had died during pregnancy or childbirth.

Giving testimony, one women said she had lost both her mother and eldest sister, within one month of each other, from pregnancy-related complications. It was then that she and her six other siblings vowed not to allow their children to marry before their school graduation, and would urge them not to have more than two children.

"Everyone must become involved" in urgent efforts to reduce maternal mortality, Ms. Bellamy said. "Doctors, policy makers, NGOs, activists, and individuals must work together to ensure that daughters are not subjected to the violence that their mothers have had to endure."

Pregnancy and childbirth complications are the single greatest cause of death and disability among women of child-bearing age in developing countries -- and Bangladesh has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world.

Recent studies estimate that 585,000 women a year die of pregnancy and childbirth-related causes worldwide, a figure that dwarfs previous reckonings. The toll could be greatly cut through interventions such as improved emergency obstetric care, trained midwives, the presence of skilled birth attendants, family planning, iron folate and vitamin A supplements, a nutritious diet during pregnancy and prompt initiation of breastfeeding. In addition, low status of women makes them more vulnerable to physical abuse and neglect, which contributes to maternal mortality.

UNICEF is working with the Government of Bangladesh to strengthen emergency obstetric care services, and to make them more accessible. The programme includes an emphasis on the message that it is a woman's right to survive pregnancy and childbirth.