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1 - The geography of maternal death

from SECTION 1 - THE SIZE OF THE PROBLEM

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2014

Wendy Graham
Affiliation:
University of Aberdeen
Jacqueline Bell
Affiliation:
University of Aberdeen
Ann Fitzmaurice
Affiliation:
University of Aberdeen
Sarah Neal
Affiliation:
University of Southampton
Siti Nurul Qomariyah
Affiliation:
University of Indonesia
Zoë Matthews
Affiliation:
University of Southampton
Sean Kehoe
Affiliation:
John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford
James Neilson
Affiliation:
University of Liverpool
Jane Norman
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
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Summary

Introduction

The great blot on public health administration

By 1905, the majority of deaths during pregnancy and childbirth in England and Wales were registered officially and the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) was around 420 deaths per 100000 live births. Lack of progress in reducing this mortality during the period up to the mid-1930s was a cause of great concern and indeed shame to health authorities, as indicated in the quotation above from the then Minister of Health. Awareness of this stalled progress also contributed to a wider public outrage over the poor state of maternal and infant welfare.

By 2005, at least 75% of maternal deaths in the developing world went unrecorded and the estimated magnitude was 450 deaths per 100000 live births. The outcry against this modern-day disgrace has become louder since 2000, when the Millennium Declaration pledged wide-scale reductions in maternal mortality as one of eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) agreed by an unprecedented concord of 198 nation states. Further momentum has gathered through national and international advocacy for safe motherhood, such as through the White Ribbon Alliance5 and the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health.

The similarities between the contemporary movement to prevent maternal deaths and the lay committees set up in Britain in the 1930s to lobby for greater attention are striking in many ways. However, there are also major differences, some of which highlight bleak prospects for achieving MDG 5.

Type
Chapter
Information
Maternal and Infant Deaths
Chasing Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5
, pp. 3 - 28
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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