UNFPAUNFPA Annual Report 2000
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THE SAFE MOTHERHOOD INITIATIVE

For 13 years the Safe Motherhood Initiative has been working to improve the health of mothers in developing countries. It is an example of effective collaboration between UNFPA, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank, the Population Council, the Regional Prevention of Maternal Mortality Programme in Africa, the Safe Motherhood Network in Nepal, Family Care International, the International Planned Parenthood Federation, the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics, and the International Confederation of Midwives.

Improving maternal health calls for better health facilities, logistics systems and training to ensure appropriate and effective care. Community-based services are often the most effective. In Nepal, where only 6 per cent of births are assisted by trained birth attendants and one in 10 pregnant women go through childbirth alone, UNFPA is working with local mothers' groups to improve maternal care. In 2000, over 24,000 mothers were trained by volunteers in reproductive health. The mothers, in turn, spoke to other women in their communities and distributed family planning supplies and information. They also mobilized locally to create revolving funds for emergency obstetric care so women facing life-threatening complications during birth can get help when they need it most.

UNFPA is working in all regions to increase skilled attendance at birth. The assistance of health professionals at delivery significantly reduces deaths, illness and disability. In Bangladesh, 18 maternal and child welfare centres were renovated and upgraded in 2000 to provide comprehensive services, most notably emergency obstetric care, and 30 doctors completed a one-year training programme in obstetric care and anaesthesiology. Over the last three years, skilled attendance at birth has risen from 8 to 13 per cent.

 

UNFPA AND COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY SIGN PACT FOR SAFE MOTHERHOOD

To increase the availability and use of emergency obstetric care, UNFPA joined forces in 2000 with Columbia University in New York. The four-year agreement enables UNFPA to carry out its $9 million "Making 'Safe Motherhood' a Reality" project to make existing hospitals and health centres capable of providing such care. Often, small investments in equipment and training are sufficient to ensure that vital care is available to women in labour. As part of the agreement, UNFPA is helping improve the availability of emergency obstetric care in four countries: India, Morocco, Mozambique and Nicaragua. Needs assessment missions were also carried out in nine African and Central American countries: Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mauritania, Nicaragua, Niger and Senegal.

  

SAFE MOTHERHOOD IN MOROCCO

In 2000, UNFPA launched a new project in Morocco to reduce maternal mortality rates. A substantial number of deaths occur because women with obstetric complications do not receive appropriate care soon enough to save their lives. The project, carried out in cooperation with Columbia University's Averting Maternal Death and Disability Program, is conducting a national assessment to determine the country's needs for maternal health. So far, doctors and nurses have been trained in 13 provinces in life-saving skills, and five health facilities were upgraded with the necessary surgical and sterilization instruments to enable them to administer antibiotics and anti-convulsants, assist in delivery, and perform caesarean sections and blood transfusions when needed.

Photo: UNFPA

SAVE THE MOTHERS FUND

In 2000, women in eight developing countries received emergency obstetric care through the Save the Mothers Fund with funding from UNFPA, the Pharmacia Corporation and the World Bank. Started by the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO), Save the Mothers Fund is an innovative partnership through which professional societies in industrialized countries provide training and donate basic equipment to developing countries to improve emergency obstetric care. The partner countries are: Canada and Uganda; Italy and Mozambique; Sweden and Ethiopia; United Kingdom and Pakistan; and the United States and Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador.