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Maternal Mortality – One Woman a Minute

Maternal Mortality – One Woman a Minute. Nancy Velazquez Jordan Litaker. What can be done to reduce the Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) in the developing world?. The India Project Staying in Uniform Access to Birth-control Gender Equality: Health and Education.

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Maternal Mortality – One Woman a Minute

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  1. Maternal Mortality – One Woman a Minute Nancy Velazquez Jordan Litaker

  2. What can be done to reduce the Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) in the developing world? • The India Project • Staying in Uniform • Access to Birth-control • Gender Equality: Health and Education • Women in Niger have a 1 in 7 chance of dying in childbirth. • Overall, in Sub-Saharan Africa, the lifetime risk of dying in childbirth is 1 in 22. • Women in India still have a 1 in 70 chance of dying during childbirth. • The United States, the risk is 1 in 4,800.

  3. The India Project • Pilot program in some areas of India are paying $15 to poor women to deliver in health centers. • In addition, rural health workers get a $5 bounty for each woman brought in for delivery. • Vouchers are also provided so that pregnant women can get transportation to the clinic. • The proportion of women delivering in health centers rose from 15 percent to 60 percent and mortality plunged. • After delivery, women were more likely to return to the health centers for birth control and other services.

  4. Staying in Uniform • Sometimes the most effective approaches aren’t medical at all. • A South African study found that giving girls a $6 uniform every 18 months increased the chance that they would stay in school • Consequently, significantly reduce the number of pregnancies they experience. • Uniforms delay marriage and pregnancy until they are better able to deliver babies.

  5. Access to Birth-control • IUD’s and the Pill were only available by prescription from a doctor. • Which meant that some of the most effective forms of contraception were unavailable to 99 percent of the population. • Midwives could talk to a woman and either give her a prescription for the pill and are authorized to insert IUD’s.

  6. Gender Equality: Health and Education • Gender equality will only increase if there are significant investments made in health and education to women. • Sri Lanka is the perfect example: saving mothers has been a priority. • 89 percent of Sri Lankan women are literate, compared to just 43 percent across South Asia. • Educating girls resulted in them having more economic value and more influence in society. • Established a major network of trained midwives (18 months), spread across the country and each serving a population of three thousand to five thousand. • Today, 97 percent of births are attended by a skilled practitioner and is routine, even for village women to give birth in a hospital. • Sri Lanka has brought down its maternal mortality ratio down from 550 maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births to just 58.

  7. Humanity as One • This is more than a political problem, it is a human rights issue. • “Women might just have something to contribute to civilization other than their vaginas” • Christopher Buckley, Florence of Arabia • Also seen in Half the Sky

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