Achieving the Millennium Development Goal of Improving Maternal Health : Determinants, Interventions and Challenges
This paper summarizes the importance of improving maternal and reproductive health, the progress made to date and lessons learned, and the major challenges confronting programs today. The paper highlights the progress that some countries, including...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2013
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2005/03/5733938/achieving-millennium-development-goal-improving-maternal-health-determinants-interventions-challenges http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13744 |
| Summary: | This paper summarizes the importance of
improving maternal and reproductive health, the progress
made to date and lessons learned, and the major challenges
confronting programs today. The paper highlights the
progress that some countries, including very poor ones, have
made in reducing maternal mortality, but cautions that
progress in many countries remains slow. Relying on evidence
from the most recent research and survey information, the
paper also analyzes the key determinants and evidence on
effective interventions for attaining the maternal health
MDG. The paper finds that key interventions to improve
maternal and reproductive health and reduce maternal
mortality include the following mutually reinforcing
strategies: (a) mobilizing political commitment and
fostering an enabling policy environment; (b) investing in
social and economic development such as female education,
poverty reduction, and improvements in women's status;
(c) providing family planning services; (d) ensuring quality
antenatal care, skilled attendance during childbirth, and
availability of emergency obstetric services for pregnancy
complications; and (e) strengthening the health system and
community involvement. The paper emphasizes that carrying
out interventions remains a challenge in environments where
political commitment, policies, as well as institutions and
health systems, are weak. The paper concludes with guiding
lessons from some of the countries that have successfully
improved maternal health and with a discussion of some of
the difficulties of measuring maternal mortality and
morbidity outcomes. |
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