Safe Motherhood: A Review - Family Care International

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The UN General Assembly
Special Session on Children
The UNGASS on Children, held in 2002,
was a ten-year review of the World
Summit for Children. It aimed to assess
progress on improving children’s lives and to
identify additional interventions necessary to
achieve the goals of the World Summit.
One informant recalled that commitments
to safe motherhood were included in the
draft outcome document draft prepared
by unicef (the UNGASS secretariat). The
draft document framed safe motherhood as
necessary for improving women’s health and
infant and child survival, and included key
actions on priority areas such as increasing
access to skilled care during childbirth. This
was a very effective strategy: although the
most powerful governmental delegation—that
of the United States—attempted to weaken
the discussion of maternal health by equating
safe motherhood with abortion, all other
delegations reiterated their commitment to
safe motherhood, leading the United States
to retreat. The informant recalled that, by
the time of the UNGASS on Children, safe
motherhood was widely accepted as a
key development goal; governments were
focused on identifying and implementing
maternal health interventions and were
not interested in revisiting old debates.
Additionally, the informant recalled that a
number of delegates referenced materials
prepared by the SMI when making statements
on recommending strong safe motherhood
language in the document.