women WILL deliver

image from women deliver

The statistics are staggering. over 500,000 women die every year in childbirth. That is almost 1.500 women everyday. For every one of those women, it is estimated that anywhere from 15 to 30 other women suffer lifelong illness and disability. About 25% of these deaths are the result of hemorrhage or severe bleeding, another 15% from both infections and unsafe abortions, 12% eclampsia, and 8% from obstructed delivery. 99% of these conditions are preventable from simple interventions including clean birth kits, antenatal care, and delivery attendance by trained health care professionals.The global health community has the tools and interventions to prevent these deaths.

On Monday, June 7th, 2010, Washington, DC hosted the largest meeting on maternal health in over a decade. Women Deliver hosted an event of over 3,000 attendees from over 146 countries. UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary for Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, Melinda Gates, Ashley Judd, and Christy Turlington each lended their voice to the cause of reducing maternal morbidity and mortality. Even more importantly, were the rest of the international public health professionals working tirelessly to save womens lives in their home countries, and around the world.

Over the course of the three days I was in Washington I attended sessions on womens empowerment, government engagement, human resources, health systems strengthening, emergency obstetric care, financing, and costing. I wasn’t able to attend sessions on the Pill, obstetric fistula, access to safe abortions, male engagement, HIV, family planning, and adolsecent health. The panel discussions engaged government officials, on the ground implementers, bilateral agencies, and NGO staffers to share their experiences, lessons learned, and ideas for the way forward.

Amazing individuals in the global health community shared their thoughts on “delivering solutions for women and girls” in moving and inspiring orations. Hillary Clinton has called on the global community, saying “women have delivered for the world, and now it is time for the world to deliver for women.” Anthony Lake, the director of UNICEF urges global health professionals to harness our outrage at the number of maternal deaths, and use that to continue our amazing work to solve this critical problem. Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, accurately points out that global health professionals do not lack the knowledge, the interventions, or the manpower to reduce the number of maternal deaths, what we lack is the political will.

One of the most exciting moments of the conference was the pledge by Melinda Gates for an additional $1.5 billion in grants for maternal and child health interventions by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. During her speech she said that one of the biggest challenges to improving maternal health is that we have to get people to accept that women and children are dying. I hope that in the coming weeks at Global Health Council, the G8 meeting, and the 2010 Summit on the MDGs, the global health community can increase awareness and support for maternal health, unify our voice, and move forward with renewed drive, determination, and purpose.

No woman should die giving life…

image from the bill and melinda gates foundation