Title: Safe motherhood: the road from Nairobi [editorial]

POPLINE Document Number: 134382

Author(s):

Fathalla MF

Source citation:

African Journal of Reproductive Health, 1998 Apr;2(1):6-7.

Abstract:

While women had long died from complications of pregnancy and childbirth before 1987, it was not until the mid-1980s that several factors converged to prompt the launching of the safe motherhood initiative in Nairobi in February 1987. Data had accumulated which showed that 500,000 women were dying annually due to pregnancy and childbirth, with millions more suffering from severe morbidity. Such suffering need not occur since maternal mortality is largely avoidable and practically nonexistent in developed countries. The increasing status of women also meant that their lives came to mean more and were considered worthy of saving. 10 years later, in October 1997, an international technical consultation was held in Colombo to review progress achieved and lessons learned since the initiative was launched. It is now clear that motherhood can be made safe, with experience indicating that interventions of the following sort can have a positive impact upon safe motherhood: the advancement of women and birth planning, community-based prenatal care and delivery by trained birth attendants, and the provision of essential obstetric care and facilities for referral. The author discusses how with regard to safe motherhood cure is often better than prevention, the need for more than primary health care to make a difference, how poverty and lack of development are only part of the picture determining whether a woman has a safe motherhood or not, and the applicability of the risk approach. Cost-effective interventions are available to make motherhood safe for women worldwide.

Keywords:

Kenya
Global
Mothers
Morbidity
Maternal Mortality
Women
Developing Countries
Africa, Eastern
Africa, Sub Saharan
Africa
Parents
Family Relationships
Family Characteristics
Family and Household
Diseases
Mortality
Population Dynamics
Demographic Factors
Population