Background

Millennium Development Goal (MDG) five to improve maternal health is the most off-track MDG, and yet has a critical impact on the achievement of all the other MDGs. More than a third of a million women die every year from complications during pregnancy and childbirth. For every woman that dies another 20 women suffer from chronic ill-health or disability. MDG 4 to reduce child mortality is also off-track. More than 8 million children die every year before their fifth birthday – at least 3.5 million of these deaths are of babies who die within the first month of life.

Improving reproductive, maternal and newborn health in the developing world is a major priority for the UK Government. DFID is therefore developing a new business plan, which will determine the UK’s contribution towards achieving MDG 5. We want to ensure that every pregnancy is wanted and that every birth is safe. In doing so, we know that we will also make an enormous contribution to reducing child mortality – particularly through improving the survival chances of newborn babies.

Choice for women - wanted pregnancies

Investing in family planning is one of the most effective development interventions and the most cost effective way to reduce maternal mortality. There are 215 million women in the developing world who would like to delay or avoid pregnancy, but do not have access to modern family planning methods – each year there are 75 million unintended pregnancies.

Failing to prevent unintended pregnancy leads some women and girls to seek an abortion. Every year 35 million of all pregnancies in the developing world end in induced abortion. An estimated 20 million of these abortions are unsafe and result in up to 70,000 maternal deaths each year.

Choice for women - safe births

More than a third of a million women die due to complications in pregnancy or childbirth each year. Young women are particularly vulnerable. Most of these deaths would have been prevented if women had access to quality reproductive, maternal and newborn health services before and during pregnancy, during labour and after the birth.  

The few hours and minutes around childbirth is the time when the risk of death is greatest for both mothers and babies. More than 3.5 million newborn deaths (accounting for more than 40% of deaths to children under five years of age) occur in the first month of life – half of these in the first 24 hours.

Women’s rights, empowerment and choice

Women and girls’ ability to take action for their own and their children’s health, and to access contraception and services for a safe pregnancy and delivery, is essential for their empowerment. A girl or woman’s ability to make choices (with her partner whenever appropriate) about if and when she becomes pregnant, and what information and services she accesses, depends on her ability to negotiate and control these issues. Her status within a family and wider society determines the importance given to her health. 

Integration of health services

Success in tackling HIV and AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and other diseases will contribute to the achievement of MDG 4 and 5, particularly in areas where these conditions are highly prevalent and underlie significant numbers of maternal, newborn and child deaths. By focusing on strengthening health systems and integrating services, effort towards MDG 5 will also support progress towards MDG 6 to tackle HIV and AIDS, malaria and other major diseases.

How you can get involved

We are developing our policies and plans of action in a number of ways. We are working with partner governments and other donors in country to determine what to support and how best to deliver; global experts give us advice; our research provides strong evidence, and we are looking at the budget and resources available to support programmes of activity.

We particularly want to hear what people around the world have to say on the subject of reproductive, maternal and newborn health. We want to know more about your views, opinions and experiences. This will help us to understand different viewpoints, how these issues might vary in different countries, and how DFID could work better with partners.

The views and opinions expressed in this survey and online discussion forum will be assessed by DFID and will give us a greater understanding of reproductive, maternal and newborn health issues around the world. Thank you for contributing your ideas.

Our ultimate aims are to improve women’s control of their reproductive lives and to save mothers’ and newborn lives. Within the context of strengthening health systems to deliver for all and recognising that different countries have different needs, what do you think that we should be aiming to achieve?

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When posting your comment, please state whether it is an individual, group or organisational response.

Where should we focus our efforts along the continuum of care (pre-pregnancy, during pregnancy and birth and after delivery) and why, in order to have an impact on MDG 5 by 2015? What do you think is most important to tackle in order of time priority?

Where appropriate please also indicate to which world region you are referring.

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When posting your comment, please state whether it is an individual, group or organisational response.

Where should we focus our efforts to advance progress on reproductive, maternal and newborn health?

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When posting your comment, please state whether it is an individual, group or organisational response.

What are the most important approaches that DFID/UK should consider to tackle inequalities in reproductive, maternal and newborn health outcomes?

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Which aspects of promoting women’s rights, empowerment, and choice should we prioritise to help increase access to reproductive, maternal and newborn health?

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We believe DFID has comparative advantage in tackling neglected and sensitive issues. Which neglected and sensitive issues should we prioritise in our work?

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Taking into account the list in the background information provided, who do you think DFID/UK should work with to improve reproductive, maternal and newborn health? How can we work in order to deliver better results through multilateral aid?

Please give reasons for the organisations you have chosen.

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How should we work with private and other non-state actors more to deliver successful reproductive, maternal and newborn health outcomes? For instance, who should we target to work with, what more could we do at global and country level, and how could we go about building better links and relationships?

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What can we learn from experience in delivering reproductive, maternal and newborn health outcomes around the world?

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How should we work in fragile and conflict affected states? Are there particular interventions and issues we should be focusing on?

Should reproductive, maternal and newborn health be better included as part of the response to rapid onset emergencies?

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What are the key gaps in the global knowledge about how to improve reproductive, maternal and newborn health, and which should we seek to fill?

How can we ensure that high quality research, already conducted, is then effectively translated in policies and practices?

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When posting your comment, please state whether it is an individual, group or organisational response.

When posting your comment, please state whether it is an individual, group or organisational response.