Every minute in the World, a woman dies in pregnancy or childbirth. For every woman who dies, twenty or more experience serious complications.
Working for the survival of mothers is a human rights imperative. It also a crucial international development priority. Both the International Conference on Population and Development and the Millennium Development Goals call for a 75 percent reduction in maternal mortality between 1990 and 2015.
In this context, and in the middle of the 7 Billion Actions Campaign, which underlines the necessity of creating innovative solutions in the 7 Key Issues identified as imperative, UNFPA Egypt concentrates its efforts on objective 2 “Women and Girls: Empowerment and Progress” and 4 “Reproductive Health and Rights: The Facts of Life”.
Recognizing the crucial role played by midwives in saving the lives of many mothers and children, UNFPA Egypt sheds light on the efforts of those women who are making a difference by improving the quality of life of those in their communities. On October 12th in Miniya, UNFPA Egypt honored forty midwives during a celebration and offered them certificates and midwifery kits. These midwives were the most recent graduates of the six-month program, hosted by UNFPA Egypt in coordination with the Ministry of Health, which trained midwives on safe deliveries and reproductive health in 3 governorates (Fayoum, Minia, Beni Suef).
Despite the fact the trends in maternal health indicators have improved significantly since 1995, there are still many gaps that demand further efforts in Egypt. UNFPA believes that this kind of comprehensive and targeted interventions could not only reduce MMR but also regional disparities, one of the main challenges to accomplishing national goals and the MDGs.
