The Power and Promise of Girls' Education - Save the Children

The data collected for the Mothers’ Index document the
tremendous gaps between rich and poor countries and
the urgent need to accelerate progress in the health and
well-being of mothers and their children. The data also
highlight the regional dimension of this tragedy. Eight of
the Bottom 11 countries are in sub-Saharan Africa. That
region also accounts for 14 of the 20 lowest-ranking
countries.
The contrast between the top-ranked country, Sweden,
and one of the lowest-ranked countries, Ethiopia, is
striking. A trained attendant is present at virtually every
birth in Sweden, while only 6 percent of births are
attended in Ethiopia. Nearly all Swedish women are
literate, 72 percent are using some modern method of
contraception, and only 1 in 333 will see her child die
before his or her first birthday. At the opposite end of
the spectrum, only 1 in 3 women is literate in Ethiopia,
6 percent are using modern contraception, and 1 in 9
children dies before his or her first birthday.
Individual country comparisons are especially startling
when one considers the human suffering behind the
statistics:
• Fewer than 15 percent of births are attended by
trained health personnel in Bangladesh, Ethiopia and
Nepal.
• 1 woman in 10 dies in pregnancy or childbirth in Mali,
Rwanda and Tanzania; the ratio is 1 in 7 in Malawi.
• 3 of every 4 pregnant women in the Democratic
Republic of Congo, Gambia, Madagascar and Turkey
are anemic.
Family Planning Saves Lives: As Contraceptive
Use Rises, Maternal and Infant Deaths Decline
122 in
1,000
6%
1 in 10
Mali Uganda Bolivia Vietnam United
States
Infant mortality
rate
81 in
1,000
1 in 13
53 in
1,000
18%
27%
57%
19 in
1 in 47
1,000
Lifetime risk of
maternal mortality
1 in
270
71%
7 in
1,000 1 in
2,500
75%
4 in
1,000 1 in
8,200
Finland
Percent of women using
modern contraception
The data in the Mothers’ Index indicate that increased access to
and use of modern contraception can lead to dramatic
improvements in infant and maternal survival rates. For
example, in Finland, where 75 percent of women use birth
control, only 1 in 8,200 mothers dies in childbirth during her
lifetime and 4 out of 1,000 infants do not make it to their first
birthday. Compare this to Mali, where 6 percent of women use
birth control, 1 in 10 mothers dies in childbirth, and 1 in 8
infants dies before reaching age 1.
Every year, millions of women and children in the developing
world die as a result of births that are too close together, too
early, or too late in a woman’s life. In developing countries,
maternal mortality is the leading cause of death for women of
reproductive age, killing 529,000 women a year.At least 1 in 9
is a teenage girl. Every minute of every day, at least one
woman dies from complications of pregnancy and childbirth.
Family planning also makes important contributions to child
survival. More than 10 million children under 5 die every year
in the developing world. Family planning could prevent 25
percent of these deaths by spacing births at least two years
apart, by helping women to bear children during their
healthiest reproductive years, and by enabling parents to have
their desired number of children.
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THE POWER AND PROMISE OF GIRLS’ EDUCATION