Maternal Health Target: Achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health
27 year old Nghia* lives in Vietnam. She is HIV positive. As a result of access to antenatal care, Nghia’s daughter did not contract HIV at birth.
"I’m happy because I can see my daughter enter Grade 1 this school year," Nghia says. "She can enjoy school that her elder brother never had a chance to."
*The name has been changed to protect identity.
More than half a million women die every year as a result of difficulties during pregnancy or childbirth, almost all of them in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. To ensure progress is made towards MDG 5, improving maternal health, these deaths must be prevented.
For every woman, being pregnant and having a baby carries some degree of risk to her life, but this risk varies greatly depending on where she lives. In sub-Saharan Africa a woman’s risk of dying from complications during pregnancy or childbirth over the course of her lifetime is 1 in 16, compared to a staggering 1 in 3,800 in the developed world.
Many of the countries with the highest rates of maternal mortality in sub-Saharan Africa are those with large numbers of people living with HIV and AIDS. A recent report from the South African government shows that over 20 per cent of maternal deaths there were directly related to HIV and AIDS.
Many of these maternal deaths related to HIV and AIDS can be avoided. For many women in developing countries, pregnancy may be the only time they come into contact with the healthcare system. This makes antenatal care a crucial opportunity to ensure women are offered counselling and testing for HIV.
Access to antenatal care also means that women who are HIV positive are shown how to prevent passing the virus on to their babies, thus dramatically reducing the rate of spread of HIV and allowing mothers to protect their babies from harm.
Take action now to remind G8 leaders of their promise in 2007 of $1.5 billion to provide access to antenatal care for pregnant women in developing countries.
Lord Jesus, you know the heart cry of every mother for her unborn child’s well-being, and the danger that poor women in particular face in giving birth.
Lord, may future mothers know Your love and care for them, and would they know Your presence in the joys and fears of impending motherhood. May they have at their side those who can help them deliver their child safely.
Father in heaven, we pray for the needs of mothers to be recognised by governments, authorities and churches; that the need for well-skilled birth attendants midwives and doctors would be recognised and met.
In the name of Jesus,
Amen
Help mothers and their babies around the world
Act Now! Write to the Chancellor Alistair Darling and ask him how and when the Government will contribute their G8 share of the $1.5 billion to provide antenatal care for all pregnant HIV positive women, and ask him to encourage other G8 countries to do the same.
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