Vector Issue 12 - 2011

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5 MDG improve maternal health KEY FACTS MDG 5 focuses on maternal health and has two targets. The first is to reduce by ¾ between 1990 and 2015 the Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR), defined as the number of deaths of women who are pregnant, giving birth, or up to 42 days postpartum, per 100,000 live births 1 . The second is to achieve universal access to reproductive health care. www.ghn.amsa.org.au 20 the Pains of Labour samantha sundercombet university of sydney vector FEB 2011
Progress to date: MDG5 is the worst performing MDG 2 . Since 1980, the world MMR has declined 1.3 percent (CI 1.0-1.5) annually to 251 deaths/100,000 live births in 2008 3 . Similarly, there has been a 1.5 percent annual decline in the gross number of deaths, from 526,300 to 342 900 (CI 302 100-394 300) 3 . These figures are smaller than the 3 percent annual decline necessary to meet the MDG5 target between 1990 and 2015. Over half the maternal deaths in 2008 occurred in just 6 countries: India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Afghanistan has the highest MMR, at 1575/100,000 3 ]. For comparison, Australia’s MMR is 5/100,000 3 . ‘‘ MDG 5 is the worst performing millenium Access to modern contraception is an effective primary prevention strategy against unsafe abortion, which causes 8 maternal deaths an hour [9 , and maternal mortality generally 10 . Modern contraceptive use has increased in all regions 11] , however remains so low that 76 million unintended pregnancies occur each year 12 : 41 percent of pregnancies globally are unwanted and 22 percent result in induced abortion 13 . Access to safe, legal abortion has been shown to reduce abortion mortality 10 . ‘‘ development goal World Global Monitoring Report 2010 Maternal mortality progress from 1980-2008 3 Reasons for high maternal mortality: The most common immediate causes of maternal death are post-partum haemorrhage, sepsis, hypertensive disorders, unsafe abortion, and obstructed labour 4 . The majority of deaths occur around labour, delivery, and 5-48 hours post-partum 5 . Broader socio-economic factors contributing to maternal deaths include poverty 6 , which is improving 2 , disempowerment of women, and HIV 3, 5 . Solutions: Ensuring access to skilled attendance at delivery, and emergency obstetric care for birth complications, can potentially prevent 250,000 maternal deaths per year 7 . A strategy where women deliver their children in a health facility attended by midwives, with other attendants such as doctors available if complications arise, is the ‘best bet’ for reducing maternal mortality 8 . In India, a scheme where women are given cash incentives to deliver their babies at health facilities has increased the number of in-facility births 14 . If adopted globally, this scheme could reduce maternal deaths due to poverty. Women are gradually becoming more empowered. Girls were attending primary school at the same rate as boys in almost 2/3 of developing countries by 2005 2 ]. Educated women marry later, have greater decision-making power in households, and have fewer, healthier and better-nourished children 15 . Furthermore, more women than before are able to earn income through access to small business loans, known as microfinance. Maternal mortality progress from 1980-2008 3 vector FEB 2011 21 www.ghn.amsa.org.au
Page 1 and 2: vector www.ghn.amsa.org.au Issue 12
Page 3 and 4: contents 4 EDITORIAL 5 8 Reflection
Page 5 and 6: arthur cheung university of queensl
Page 7 and 8: to be coordinated, is a poignant in
Page 9 and 10: http://www.good.is/post/which-count
Page 11 and 12: Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty a
Page 13 and 14: the need for interventions to be pr
Page 15 and 16: of women who share in employment in
Page 17 and 18: aWindowintoGlobalHealth vector FEB
Page 19: It would be simplistic to assume th
Page 23 and 24: aWindowintoGlobalHealth Goal 3: Emp
Page 25 and 26: Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, a
Page 27 and 28: SNAPSHOT 33 million people are curr
Page 29 and 30: PLAY A PART AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE U
Page 31 and 32: key goals 1. Raise the commitment o
Page 33 and 34: several hundred million additional
Page 35 and 36: I recently undertook my medical ele
Page 37 and 38: alexandra f r a i n & l u k e hamil

Vector Issue 12 - 2011

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