UN CHRONICLE E-ALERT

Hospitals & Asylums

UN CHRONICLE E-ALERT
Women's Reproductive Health
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As International Women's Day, commemorated annually on 8 March, approaches, it is appropriate to remember that more than half a million women die in pregnancy or childbirth each year, especially in the developing world. For every woman who dies in childbirth, 20 more suffer injury, infection or disease, affecting some 10 million women each year. Goal 5 of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals focuses light on the pressing need to improve maternal health and empower women.

- Every day, at least 1,600 women die from complications of pregnancy and childbirth, that is, a minimum of 585,000 each year. These complications are the leading cause of death and disability for women aged 15 to 49 in developing countries;

- About 50 million women experience pregnancy-related complications every year, many leading to long-term illness or disability;

- There are an estimated 200 million pregnancies in the world each year, one third or 75 million unwanted;

- Every pregnancy faces risks: at least 40 per cent of women will experience some type of complications, of which 15 per cent will be potentially life-threatening;

- Each year, approximately 20 million unsafe abortions are performed worldwide, resulting in nearly 80,000 maternal deaths and hundreds of thousands of disabilities. In some countries, unsafe abortion is the most common cause of death, but it is also one of the most easily preventable and treatable.

- If all women who do not want any more children were actually able to stop childbearing, the number of births would be reduced by an average of 35 per cent (4.4 million) in Latin America, 33 per cent (24.4 million) in Asia, and 17 per cent (4 million) in Africa. Maternal mortality would fall by even higher rates, since the births that would be averted would tend to be the high-parity and/or high-risk births.

- Birth intervals of less than 36 months significantly increase the risk of complications and death.

- Worldwide, 62 per cent or 650 million of the more than 1 billion married or in-union women of reproductive age are using contraception. In the more developed regions, 70 per cent of married women use a method of contraception, while in the less developed regions 60 per cent do. In Africa, only 25 per cent are using it, whereas in Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean prevalence of contraceptive use is fairly high-66 per cent and 69 per cent, respectively.

Below are UN Chronicle articles on womens' health, as well as links to related UN websites and other resources.

WOMEN'S REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

Obstetric Fistula: Life Shattering But Preventable (Issue 3, 2005)
By Jessica Bankes Beattie
http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/2005/issue3/0305p04.html

Natalie Imbruglia Sheds Light on Devastating Condition (Issue 3, 2005)
By Saira Stewart
http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/2005/issue3/0305p05.html

Make Every Mother and Child Count (Issue 3, 2005)
By Jessica Bankes Beattie
http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/2005/issue3/0305p65.html

Safe Motherhood: A Matter of Human Rights and Social Justice (Issue 2, 2005)
By Rita Luthra
http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/2005/issue2/0205p14.html

It is Not as if Somebody Said There Would be no Miracle (Issue 1, 2003)
http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/2003/issue1/0103p58.html

Breastfeeding Encouraged as Annual Week Begins (Web Article)
By Zahra Sethna
http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/2002/issue3/080602_world_breastfeeding_week.html

Reproductive Health (Issue 3, 2002)
By Kwasi Odoi-Agyarko
http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/2002/issue3/0302p43_reproductive_health.html

World Contraceptive Use 2001 (Issue 3, 2002)

http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/2002/issue3/0302p44_world_contraceptive_use.html

'2015 Will Not Come Too Soon' (Issue 3, 1999)
By Barbara Becker
http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/1999/issue3/0399p16.htm

LINKS TO RELATED RESOURCES

MDG Goal 5 : Improve Maternal Health - UN Cyberschoolbus
http://www.un.org/cyberschoolbus/mdgs/goal5.asp

UNFPA
http://www.unfpa.org

Campaign to End Fistula - UNFPA
http://www.endfistula.org

Women's Health - WHO
http://www.who.int/topics/womens_health/en/

Beijing +10 - UNIFEM
http://www.unifem.org/news/currents/currents200501_suppl1.html#csw

One-By-One Project
http://www.onebyoneproject.net/

Jorling Learns to Take Care of Herself - UN Works
http://www.un.org/works/women/women2.html

These stories and more can be found at UN Chronicle Online at http://www.un.org/chronicle The UN Chronicle edition is published by the United Nations Department of Public Information in English and French, and co-published in Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Spanish. It is not an official record; the views expressed in individual articles do not necessarily imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations.

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