SAFE MOTHERHOOD

WHAT IS THE
SAFEMOTHERHOOD INITIATIVE?
Is a global effort that aim to reduce deaths
and illnesses among women and infants,
especially in developing countries
Was launched in 1987 to improve maternal
health and cut the number of maternal
deaths in half by the year 2000.

SAFE MOTHERHOOD
GOAL

To improve well being of mothers

through a comprehensive approach of
providing, preventing, promotive ,
curative and rehabilitative health care

SAFE MOTHERHOOD
OBJECTIVE
Improve quality and increase access to
family planning and maternal health care
services
Educate couples to ensure they have the
best chance for a wanted and safe
pregnancy

 To promote improvement of systems for

monitoring maternal and newborn health
services;
To promote the implementation of evidencebased integrated cost-effective reproductive
health interventions with a focus on maternal
and newborn health within primary health care
approach;
To conduct operations research to generate
best practices and evidence for addressing
priority reproductive health problems.

BURDEN OF
MATERNAL
DEATH

112,000 DEATH PER

YEAR

359 DEATHS PER DAY

ONE WOMEN
DIES
IN
EVERY MINUTE

20% OF DEATHS OF
MATERNAL DEATHS
ARE IN India

THE FOUR PILLARS OF SAFE

MOTHERHOOD

BASIC MATERNITY
CARE
PRIMARY HEALTH CARE

EQUITY FOR WOMEN

ESSENTIALY
OBSTETRIC
CARE

CLEAN
SAFE
DELIVERY

ANTENATA
L CARE

FAMILY
PLANNING

SAFE
MOTHERHOOD

NATIONAL SAFE MOTHERHOOD

DAY 2012 THEME

Ensuring quality services for

safe motherhood

ENSURING SAFE MOTHERHOOD

Safe motherhood means ensuring that all women

have access to the information and services they need to
go safely through pregnancy and childbirth. It includes :
Education on safe motherhood
Prenatal care
Promotion of maternal nutrition
Adequate delivery assistance in all cases
Provisions for obstetric emergencies including referral
services for pregnancy, childbirth and abortion
complications
Postnatal care.

SUPPORT FOR SAFE

MOTHERHOOD INITIATIVES
Safe Motherhood Day which is observed on the
11th of April every year, was marked by two events
in India, in which UNICEF played a key role.
The Government of India in collaboration with
The White Ribbon Alliance (WRAI) for Safe
Motherhood (of which UNICEF is an active
member), organized a national stakeholders
meeting, in the capital Delhi, to discuss the pressing
priorities in relation to womens health.

Dr. Marzio Babille, Chief of Health for

UNICEF India, who took part in the
national stakeholders meeting, said the
countrys focus should be on a life-cycle
approach to womens health. He said,
UNICEF believes in addressing women
during their adolescence, when
reproductive and other lifestyle
behaviours set the stage for later life.

EVENT OF SAFE MOTHERHOOD DAY

UNICEF in partnership
with the World Health
Organisation (WHO) and
the Health Fitness Trust
organised an Awareness
Run, also in Delhi, for
school children on issues
relating to safe
motherhood.

 White Ribbon Alliance for

Safe Motherhood of India, an
alliance committed towards
increasing public awareness
on preventing maternal deaths
is organizing the Aakhir Kyon
Concert on 26thMarch, 2012
at Amphitheatre, India Habitat
Centre, New Delhi where
Shubha Mudgal will release a
special song dedicated to Safe
Motherhood. Birth is life how
can this be allowed to be the
cause of death? Especially
when most of such deaths are
so easily preventable

 School of Public Health,

PGIMER in collaboration
with Chandigarh Health
Administration celebrated
Safe Motherhood Day
at their Maternal and
Child Health centre at
Polyclinic, Sector-45
today with about 100
pregnant and lactating
mothers.

 About 100,000 deaths occur

annually in India from causes
related to pregnancy and
childbirth. In Orissa, the maternal
mortality rate (MMR) is about 303
while the national average is 254,
states a new report released by
Deliver Now for Women and
Children campaign.
Members from the
White Ribbon Alliance for Safe M
otherhood
(WRAI) and
Partnership of Maternal, Newborn
and Child Health
(PMNCH) had launched a national
campaign last year on April 11,

 Nagaland observes Safe

Motherhood Day
Putting effort to spread
awareness on saving
mothers lives, Safe
Motherhood Day was
launched globally in 1997 to
promote, increase public
awareness on the need to
make pregnancy and
childbirth safe for all women
and newborns, especially in
developing countries.

 WRA Indonesia and the Women Caucus

Parliament of the Republic of Indonesia (KPPRI) successfully hosted a seminar on Strategic
Position and Commitment of the Parliament
Members for Safe Motherhood. The integrated
approach toward safe motherhood is not only to
include mothers health during pregnancy,
childbirth and the post partum period, but also
child health, especially during the first day of a
child's life, and emphasizing exclusive breast
feeding.

LIFE CYCLE APPROACH OF WOMEN

Reproductive health is a lifetime concern for both
women and men, from infancy to old age. In many
cultures, the discrimination against girls and women
that begins in infancy can determine the trajectory
of their lives.
The important issues of education and
appropriate health care arise in childhood and
adolescence. These continue to be issues in the
reproductive years, along with family planning,
sexually transmitted diseases and reproductive
tract infections, adequate nutrition and care in
pregnancy, and the social status of women and
concerns about cervical and breast cancer.

Critical messages for different life stages

In its advocacy and programming, UNFPA
focuses on key messages that can empower
both women and men at different stages of their
lives.

Girls and boys

Inform and empower girls to delay pregnancy
until they are physically and emotionally
mature.
Inspire and motivate boys and men to be
sexually responsible partners and value
daughters equally as sons.
Encourage governments to take responsibility
for the human catastrophe of orphans and
other children who live in the streets.

Adolescents
Reorient health education and services to meet the diverse
needs of adolescents. Integrated reproductive health education
and services for young people should include family planning
information, and counselling on gender relations, STDs and
HIV/AIDS, sexual abuse and reproductive health.
Ensure that health care programmes and providers' attitudes
allow for adolescents' access to the services and information
they need.
Support efforts to eradicate female genital cutting and other
harmful practices, including early or forced marriage, sexual
abuse, and trafficking of adolescents for forced labour,
marriage or commercial sex.
Socialize and motivate boys and young men to show respect
and responsibility in sexual relations.

Adulthood
Improve communication between men and women on
issues of sexuality and reproductive health.
Enable women to exercise their right to control their own
fertility and their right to make decisions concerning
reproduction and discrimination and violence.
Improve the quality and availability of reproductive health
services and barriers to access.
Make emergency obstetric care available to all women
who experience complications in their pregnancies.
Encourage men's responsibility for sexual and
reproductive behaviour and increase male participation in
family planning.

The older years

Reorient and strengthen health care services to
better meet the needs of older women.
Support outreach by women's NGOs to help
older women in the community to better
understand the importance of girls' education,
reproductive rights and sexual health so that
they may become effective transmitters of this
knowledge.