16 more countries join UN's fight against maternal and newborn mortality

[News_Editor]

16 more countries join UN's fight against maternal and newborn mortality

2011-05-20 07:16:28 GMT+7 (ICT)

UNITED NATIONS (BNO NEWS) -- The United Nations (UN) on Thursday announced that sixteen countries have announced commitments in order to implement measures that would help reduce current levels of maternal, newborn and child mortality.

As part of the Global Strategy for Women's and Children's Health, a $40 billion program that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched last year, more nations have joined, increasing their budget for maternity and natal care, as well as committing to increasing medical coverage for mothers and children.

The commitments also focus on measures proven effective in preventing deaths, such as increased contraceptive use, attended childbirth, improved access to emergency obstetric care, prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, and greater childhood immunizations.

The new pledges were announced by Burundi, Chad, the Central African Republic (CAR), Comoros, Guinea, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Madagascar, Mongolia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Tajikistan, Togo, and Vietnam, bringing the total number of committed countries to 34, 27 of them from Africa.

Eight countries promised specific increases in the national budgets for medical care for women and children, while others announced specific goals in increasing the coverage area and numbers for such care.

At least 10 countries making new commitments promised to increase the number of midwives.

Every year, 358,000 women in the developing world aged 15-49 die of pregnancy and childbirth-related complications, 2.6 million children are stillborn, and a further 8.1 million die before their fifth birthday, including 3.3 million babies in the first month of life.

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