The document discusses improving maternal health as one of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Maternal health needs improvement because pregnancy and childbirth complications are among the top causes of death for women in developing countries. The goals are to reduce maternal mortality, achieve universal access to reproductive healthcare, and reduce pregnancy complications through access to medicine and doctors. Progress has been made in reducing maternal mortality and increasing access to antenatal care and family planning, but accelerated efforts are still needed to meet 2015 targets.

1. Millennium Development Goals
5.Improve Maternal Health

2. Introduction
The United Nations is an organisation which was
established with the purpose of bringing all nations of the
world together to work for peace and development.
The UN set up the 8 Millennium Development goals - for
example eradicating extreme poverty & hunger and
reducing child mortality rates - with the hope of reducing
global poverty and inequality in all forms by 2015.
Our project is based on goal 5, Improving Maternal
Health.

3. Why does Maternal Health need to be
Improved?
• In most developing countries, difficulties with
pregnancy and childbirth are the leading causes of death among
women of a reproductive age.
• Poor maternal conditions are the fourth leading cause of death for
women around the world, after HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis.
• High-quality health care has made maternal death very rare in
developed countries. However, maternal complications can be fatal
in developing countries due to health care that is both poor and
inaccessible.
• Maternal health problems also include complications from
childbirth that do not result in death. For every woman that dies
during childbirth, approximately 20 suffer from infection, injury,
or disability.
• A woman dies from complications with child birth almost every
minute.

4. The Goals
• Reducing by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio
• Achieve universal access to reproductive health.
• Reduce complications and in pregnancy and child birth with
the proper medicine and qualified doctors.
• To protect women from domestic violence and have men
more involved in the pregnancy and birth to prevent
ignorance and complications.
• To inform young people about contraception and increase
access to it and sexual and reproduction counselling.
• Educating girls they know what to do during pregnancy and
post pregnancy.
All of this combined will help prevent fatality and
complications during and after childbirth and pregnancy

5. What has been done so far to improve
maternal health?
There is still quite a way to go in order to fulfil the 5th
Millennium Development Goal, which is to improve maternal
health. Having said this, a lot is being done. Some actions
which have been carried out include:
 Developing more efficient and effective healthcare
systems in areas where this is needed.
 Reducing the amount of teen pregnancies, which is partly
done by educating boys and girls.
 Encouraging family planning.
 Improving maternal nutrition.
 Ensuring trained assistance at deliveries.
 Gaining better access to medical supplies needed for the
times before, after and during births.
 Protecting poor women from ill health and unaffordable
costs and treatment.

6. Maternal Mortality in the World
Maternal Mortality is highest in developing countries (eg: Ethiopia & Chad).
Maternal Mortality is not as common in developed countries (eg: Ireland & France).

7. Results So Far
The goals have been reached to a certain degree but accelerated interventions are
required in order to meet the target for 2015.
As seen in the fifth slide much has been done and as a result of this:
• Maternal mortality has nearly halved since 1990_47% less
• In Eastern Asia, Northern Africa and Southern Asia, maternal mortality has declined
by around two-thirds.
• In developing regions, antenatal care increased from 63 per cent in 1990 to 81 per
cent in 2011.
• Fewer teens are having children in most developing regions.
Sadly though progress is slowing in this case
• The need for family planning is slowly being met for more women.
• Sexual education for girls in developing countries is becoming more common

8. Video Links
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76W3AdJtTRo
^Personal Story on the results of maternal mortality
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_VwC2qhUGY
^Facts on Maternal Mortality
References
www.un.org/millenniumgoals/maternal.shtml
http://www.worldbank.org/mdgs/maternal_health.html
Google Images
Youtube

9. By Jessie,Katie&Ailbhe