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Women are still deprived of access to lifesaving essential and emergency obstetric care
Author(s) -
Islam Monir,
Yoshida Sachiyo
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
international journal of gynecology and obstetrics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.895
H-Index - 97
eISSN - 1879-3479
pISSN - 0020-7292
DOI - 10.1016/j.ijgo.2009.03.022
Subject(s) - medicine , psychological intervention , medical emergency , maternal death , nursing , population , environmental health
Two decades have passed since the global community agreed in Nairobi to the Safe Motherhood Initiative to reduce maternal deaths. However, every year 536 000 pregnant women are dying. There is no ambiguity about why most of these women are dying. These tragedies are avoidable if women have timely access to quality essential obstetric and emergency care. Rural and poor women are mostly excluded from accessing skilled and emergency care. Quality facility‐based care is the best option to reduce maternal mortality. Scaling up essential interventions and services—particularly for those who are excluded—is a substantial and challenging undertaking. We need to challenge our policy makers and program managers to refocus program content; to shift focus from development of new technologies toward development of viable organizational strategies to provide access to essential and emergency obstetric care 24 hours a day 7 days a week, and account for every birth and every death.