11 April 2014 :: Every year, on 11th April, India observes National Safe Motherhood Day so that citizens, communities and other stakeholders take a pause and deliberate on the maternal health situation in the country and look at what interventions are working and what more is needed to be done.
The theme for this year is “Improving Maternal Health by Empowering Women”. It aims at enforcing the strong voice that all women should have access to care and no maternal death is acceptable. Surviving childbirth is a basic right of every woman and each individual directly or indirectly associated with the issue has a social responsibility to ensure that every woman counts.
Every minute of every day, somewhere in the world and most often in a developing country, a woman dies from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth. That is 515,000 women, at a minimum, dying every year. Nearly all maternal deaths (99 percent) occur in the developing world–making maternal mortality the health statistic with the largest disparity between developed and developing countries. New Born babies are also under going this terrible fate, anencephalic babies that suffer from this die days or it not weeks after birth.
Safe motherhood means ensuring that all women receive the care they need to be safe and healthy throughout pregnancy and childbirth.You are not alone in this.