WUNRN
UN News Centre
NO WOMAN SHOULD HAVE TO PAY WITH HER
LIFE
TO BE A MOTHER, SAYS UN
SECRETARY-GENERAL
7 May 2010 – Hundreds of
thousands of women, nearly all of them in developing countries, die in
childbirth every year, but this does not have to be the case, says
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, calling for global support for United Nations
efforts to make motherhood safe for all.
“No woman should have to pay with her life for giving life,” he writes in an opinion piece published in the Turkish daily Today’s Zaman and several other media outlets, ahead of Mother’s Day, which will be celebrated in many countries this weekend.
Mr. Ban notes that saving mothers’ lives involves simple blood tests, a doctor’s consultation and someone qualified to help with the birth. The risk of death can almost be eliminated with the addition of some basic antibiotics, blood transfusions and a safe operating room.
While
recent figures show that progress is being made in helping women around the
world, there is still much more work to be done, he says. Of particular note is
the fact that of the hundreds of thousands of women that die in childbirth
every year, 99 per cent of them are in developing countries.
“On
my travels around the world, particularly to its poorest and most troubled
places, I have learned that it is mothers who keep families together – indeed,
who keep entire societies intact. Mothers are society’s weavers. They make the
world go round,” states Mr. Ban. “Yet too often, the world is letting mothers
down.”
He
points out that in the rich world, when a mother dies giving birth it is
assumed that something went wrong, while in the developing world, dying in
childbirth is simply a fact of life.
In
some countries, one woman in eight will die giving birth, he states.
Complications from pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death
among girls aged 15 to 19 worldwide.
The
Secretary-General notes that in poor countries, pregnant women often must fend
for themselves, with no healthcare and nowhere to turn. They give birth at
home, perhaps with the help of a midwife who most likely has no medical
training.
Last
month, the UN launched a joint action plan with governments, businesses,
foundations and civil society organizations to advance safe motherhood
worldwide. Reducing maternal mortality by three quarters is among the ambitious
targets world leaders have pledged to achieve by 2015, known as the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs).
Mr.
Ban, who himself was born not in a hospital but at home in a small village in
his native Republic of Korea, urges that everything be done to make motherhood safer
for all and to end this “silent scandal.”
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