>From Women's E News

Irene Lew is editorial intern and Nouhad Moawad is Arabic intern at Women's 
eNews.

Half of the world's pregnant women still lack access to skilled care at 
childbirth, contributing to a high number of women and infants who continue to 
die every day, according to the United Nations Population Fund. There are 
529,000 maternal deaths in the world annually.

Large numbers of poor Nigerian women are giving birth without the help of 
trained medical professionals, and only 12 percent of the poorest 20 percent 
have access to skilled medical care during childbirth, according to the United 
Nations Development Program's 2006 report. Rather than going to a hospital, 
women are giving birth in churches and in their own homes because they cannot 
afford medical help, the Nigerian newspaper Daily Trust reported Dec. 13.

In order to reduce maternal and newborn mortality, midwives and public health 
experts from 20 countries around the world have gathered in Tunisia for the 
first-ever International Forum on Midwifery in the Community. The World Health 
Organization estimates that 334,000 more midwives are needed around the globe 
to reduce maternal and newborn death and disability.

"A strong midwifery profession is key to achieving safer childbirth, and all 
pregnant women should have access to a midwife," said Thoraya Obaid, head of 
the U.N. Population Fund.

World Health Organization, Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health:
http://www.who.int/pmnch/en/



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