Having a baby will be the riskiest thing a woman will do in the developing world. Of all pregnancies, 15% will have a potentially fatal complication. Yet, in most cases, mothers deliver without any skilled attendant. Often, only their mother-in-law is present. In Sub Saharan Africa, for example, a woman has a lifetime risk of 1 in 22 of dying from pregnancy related complications.

Of 195 countries on earth, Uganda is among the 13 countries that share 70 per cent of all maternal deaths. At this time, about 6,000 Ugandan women die in childbirth every year. In Africa, the other worst countries are Tanzania, Kenya, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Angola. Outside of Africa, they are Pakistan, Indonesia, China, India, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

One in four women who die during childbirth simply bleed to death. This can often be prevented by a medication that costs less than 99 cents.

“I don’t believe that we will make the progress on HIV/Aids
without addressing maternal mortality. We will not make the progress we want on malaria without addressing maternal mortality. We will not make progress on getting more children to school without reducing maternal mortality. When a mother survives, a lot survives with her.”
~Sarah Brown, safe motherhood advocate, Wife of former Prime Minister of the U.K.

Half of all women in developing countries don’t have a skilled birth attendant at their delivery. Often, they have only their mother-in-law for help.

The death of one mother often leaves a family of orphans. These children, in turn, are more vulnerable to sickness and death. In addition, for every woman who dies in childbirth, about 20 women suffer injury, infection or disease – approximately 10 million women each year. Some develop a fistula, a tear in the bladder or rectum or birth canal that leaves them incontinent: they are women who will be thrown out of their families and villages, like lepers.