Maternal Death: A Tragedy

     A woman, somewhere in the world in every minute of every day, dies as a result of complicating arising during pregnancy and childbirth. The majority of these deaths are avoidable.
The right to life is a fundamental human right and are universal and must be applied without discrimination on any grounds whatsoever, including sex. Human rights for women include access to services that will ensure safe pregnancy and childbirth.

      Since the 1940s, maternal deaths have become increasingly rare in developed countries. The same cannot be said, however, of developing areas, where the persistence of high levels of maternal mortality is symptomatic of a pervasive neglect of women's most fundamental human rights. Such neglect affects most acutely the poor, the disadvantaged, and the powerless. For more than half a million women, death is the last episode in a long story of pain and suffering; millions more women are damaged and disabled, many of them for the rest of their lives. The suffering often goes beyond the purely physical and affects women's ability to undertake their social and economic responsibilities and to share in the development of their communities.