Towards safe womanhood: Supporting safe motherhood initiatives and women's participation in development

Improvement in a woman’s quality of life is a prerequisite for development of human resources, because the quality of children’s physical and mental development is inextricably tied to the health and welfare of women as future mothers. If a mother is well protected during the pregnancy, birth, and postpartum period, the risk of illness and other problems in fetuses and newborn babies will be reduced. On the other hand, if a woman does not survive the pregnancy, birth, and postpartum period, her fetus or newborn will also be threatened. This paper provides a situation analysis of pregnant women, women in labor, and postpartum mothers, presenting also the level of morbidity and mortality of fetuses in the perinatal period (pregnancy from 28 weeks until the newborn is 7 days old), and, in more depth, the level of morbidity or mortality of infants in the neonatal period (age 0–28 days). Also presented are the risks and needs of reproductive-age couples or women of reproductive age (15–49 years), which require intervention at the individual, family, community, environmental, and national levels.