Global Alliance launches campaign to raise US awareness of need to make pregnancy and childbirth safer

Ipas has joined other members of a global coalition devoted to making pregnancy and childbirth safer for all women and their families in launching a new advocacy campaign focused on US policymakers. At a day-long event in Washington, DC, on January 8, members of the two-year-old White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood announced formation of a legislative working group that will work to increase US funding for women's health programs around the world.

More than 100 health experts, women's health advocates and US lawmakers attended the event, where speakers decried the nearly 600,000 deaths and the estimated 55 million injuries of women and girls annually during pregnancy and childbirth. They urged the US government to provide leadership in addressing this global problem, which currently receives less than 2 percent of US funding for development assistance. Only 1 percent of the US government's entire budget goes toward foreign affairs.

Speakers at the meeting stressed that every minute of every day, a woman dies from pregnancy-related causes. The risk of dying during pregnancy or childbirth is highest in the world's poorest countries, where 99 percent of such deaths and injuries occur. In developed countries such as the United States, for example, women's risk of dying from pregnancy is only 1 in 1,800 — compared to 1 in 9 for Ethiopian women.

The impact of deaths and injuries of women during pregnancy and childbirth is broad, affecting families and communities. Studies suggest that a mother's death significantly decreases babies' and young children's chance of survival. And almost all such deaths and injuries are preventable. Speakers emphasized that ways to make pregnancy and childbirth safer — such as ensuring the availability of skilled medical care at delivery, of lifesaving treatment for complications of unsafe abortion, and of effective contraceptive methods — are known and are very affordable.

Keynote speaker Khama Rogo — a world-renowned Kenyan physician who is Vice President for Africa and Advisor to the President on Global and Medical Affairs at Ipas — chided the international community for not moving more quickly to prevent deaths of women from pregnancy and childbirth, even as it commits huge resources to causes such as space exploration and the arms trade.

"There are many places in the world today where the chances of a woman being alive and well at the end of a pregnancy are only a minute fraction of those of an astronaut going to stay for several months in the Mir and returning alive," Dr. Rogo said. "The Mir has had much more complex technical problems than any of our hospitals and health systems."

The White Ribbon Alliance was created in 1999, with the objective of making Safe Motherhood a priority of international organizations, governments and the private sector. Partnerships in 15 countries have sponsored awareness-raising campaigns and events. For example, in March 2000 the White Ribbon Alliance of India, which includes more than 30 groups, organized street dramas, puppet shows, discussion groups, art contests, rallies and other events that drew almost 10,000 attendees and received wide media coverage. Its Indonesian counterpart has more than 60 member organizations and is working to raise public concern over women's deaths during pregnancy and childbirth and to encourage collective action to combat them.

The White Ribbon Alliance currently has 154 member organizations. In addition to Ipas, co-sponsors of the January 8 event included CARE, CEDPA (The Centre for Development and Population Activities), the Communication Consortium Media Center (CCMC), Family Care International, the Global Health Council, Maternal and Neonatal Health/JHPIEGO, NGO Networks for Health, Pharmacia, Save the Children, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the U.S. Committee for UNFPA.

The group chose the white ribbon as a symbol because in many cultures the color white represents both grief and hope. The ribbon is dedicated to the memory of all women who have died in pregnancy and childbirth.

Related links:

• More on the White Ribbon Alliance
• The Safe Motherhood Initiative

For more information, contact:
Kirsten Sherk
Senior Associate, Media Relations
e-mail: sherkk@ipas.org
phone: 919.960.5612
fax: 919.929.0258