Time Left To Achieve The MDGs
About Us | References | Press | Help .

.Search:

     
 
Did You Know...
 
 
Target 6 : Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio
Introduction:
50 million women worldwide suffer from pregnancy related problems and every year 500,000 of these women will die from difficulties from their pregnancies.

Most deaths occur in Africa (1 out of every 16 births result in death of the mother) and South/central Asia (1 out of every 46 births result in death of the mother). These areas are also places of that are considered to be 'high fertility areas' meaning the women in these areas usually have many children during their life. The high mortality rates in these countries are believed to be caused by a lack of health care and too little time between pregnancies for the woman to recover. 		 
 
 
More >
 
 
Glossary
  Search through our glossary for any confusing terms  
  Go>
 
 
The Eight Main Goals:
 

Goal 1: Poverty

  

Goal 2: Education

Goal 3: Gender Equality
 
Goal 4: Child Mortality
Goal 5: Maternal Health
About Target 6:
The amount of women dying is preventable, mostly through the improvement of health services for women and sexual education for women - two areas which have been ignored for a long time.

Education is critical to improving maternal health. Women need to learn how long they must wait before having another child, when the best time to have a child is and how to avoid having children.
Goal 6: HIV/AIDS and other diseases
Goal 7: Environment
Goal 8: Global Partnership
Women also need easy access to hospitals or to doctors who can treat haemorrhaging (uncontrolled bleeding), infections and complicated births. At every delivery a qualified doctor or midwife should be helping the mother to deal with the things listed above. Currently in developing countries only about half of all births are supervised by a doctor or midwife.

usually far away or lacks the antibiotics and surgeons to care for pregnant women. In rural/developing areas many women also lack 		 
 
 
 
 
the money, transport or may not have permission from their husbands to ask for medical help.

At the moment it seems that all countries except for the Middle East and North Africa will not reach the target set by the Millennium Goals for 2015. Latin America is beginning to show signs it may catch up with its target as health care professionals attend many births and maternal health has improved dramatically in the last few years.
 
©2005 YoungMDG Team