Maternal Health and Human Rights National and Global Perspectives

Every day, approximately 800 women die from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth. In 2010, a shocking 287,000 women died of such complications. Ninety-nine percent of these deaths occur in developing countries, where a woman has a one in 150 chance of ultimately dying from a pregnancy or childbirth-related cause. Severe bleeding after birth, infection due to poor hygiene, untreated high blood pressure, or unsafe abortion cause approximately eighty percent of these deaths. Most of these women could be saved if only governments possessed the financial capability and the political will to make maternal health a priority.

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