Did you know that a thousand women a day were dying needlessly in childbirth? 

In the future I believe our daughters will ask us this question – and want to know what we did about it.

Until recently, the answer was often “no, I didn’t know”: even well-informed people in the “developed” world did not know that childbirth is one of the biggest killers of women and girls–and their newborns–globally.

WRA India Member Nupur Sachdeva reports on her experience volunteering at the White Ribbon Alliance's famous Mum's Tattoo Parlour:  For me, attending the Jaipur Literature Festival was almost like attending a page three party, bumping into many famous people– authors, speakers, lyricists, designers and other media personalities. The lit fest was littered with the glitterati: musicians and singers, playwrights and journalists, all milling around in the crowded grounds.

The Rwandan government has long committed to reduce maternal mortality in order to achieve United Nation's Millennium Development Goal 5. The MDG5 target is to halve maternal and child deaths by 2015.

In Uganda, 16 women die every day due to pregnancy or childbirth related complications. Almost 99 percent of these deaths are preventable! Only 42 percent of births are assisted by a skilled health provider and 63 percent of women in rural areas give birth at home.

On February 3, 2012, Ibu. dr. Sunitri Widodo (APPI Chairman), Ibu dr. Ratna Pertiwi Tjaja, SKM (APPI Vice Chairman I), and Ibu. Dra. Giwo Rubianto, Mpd (APPI Vice Chairman III) introduced APPI (Aliansi Pita Putih Indonesia / WRA Indonesia) to the Women’s Caucus of Parliament in Jakarta.

A team of six members from India visited Indonesia from February 4th-7th, 2012 to learn from the Desa Siaga model and its Birth Preparedness and Complication Readiness (BP/CR) strategy to reduce maternal mortality. The team was comprised of representatives from the Department of Health and Family Welfare, the government of Orissa, White Ribbon Alliance India (WRAI) and its WRA state representatives from Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

CARE under the Integrated Family Health Initiative (IFHI) is working in Bihar, India to improve Maternal and Newborn healthcare practices, including the quality of care. As part of the project, health system strengthening is being undertaken through participatory approaches by creating Quality Improvement Teams at the health facility level comprised of Doctors, Managers, Nurses and front line health workers.  This blog shares the experience of Gayatri who gave birth at the Primary Health Centre in Naubatpur block, Patna, Bihar, that is supported by the initiative.

Doctors and nurses have hailed Tanzania Women Lawyers Association, Care International and White RIbbon Alliance Tanzania for drafting the Safe Motherhood Bill, saying it will help improve maternal and reproductive health services. If passed, the bill will provide the power to hold authorities responsible for poor health services.

The National Safe Motherhood Alliance (NSMA) of Yemen partnered with several government institutions and non-governmental organizations in 2011 to achieve its goals of social mobilization, media outreach and exposure, youth activities and capacity building.

The below post from Charlotte Warren, Associate at the Population Council's Reproductive Health Services and Research Program, describes a research project in Kenya which aims to understand the extent of disrespectful and abusive care to women during maternity care and the best methods to improve this care.

The posting below from Blossum Gilmour, Mamayo Health Project Manager at CARE, describes CARE Papua New Guinea's training program for Village Birth Attendants (VBAs) in remote areas and their efforts to increase the number of women seeking maternity care at health centers.

This posting from Lorraine Fontaine, Coordinator at the Regroupement Naissance-Renaissance in Montréal, discusses the findings of a qualitative research project on women’s perspectives (both negative and positive) of maternity care and why we must be more vigilant than ever about defending the right of every woman to be treated with respect and dignity during childbirth.

The posting below was submitted by Angela in Tanzania.  She describes being stigmatized as an HIV positive patient during maternity care and the negative effect this experience has had on her view of childbirth in general.  Her story is an excellent example of how women's experiences of childbirth stay with them for a lifetime and of the effect that disrespectful care can have on a woman's future maternity care choices.

Inequities in health care are often associated with lack of access (perhaps due to geography or poverty) or outright discrimination based upon ethnicity, religion, and perceived “otherness”. The bottom line is if women are not valued, they do not receive equitable care.

This posting is from Mary Ellen Stanton, Senior Maternal Health Advisor at USAID.  She chronicles instances of disrespect and abuse during maternity care that she has witnessed over time, and discusses the challenges and opportunities for changing disrespectful and abusive behaviors in the maternity care system.