115 countries lack data to determine maternal deaths or have no data at all. The lack of vital event data is a major concern that prevents the implemetation of the most adequate programmes and policies to tackle maternal deaths. To make women count, we should first start counting them.

1. Make Women Count!
and its research center:

2. MATERNAL
DEATH:
The death of a woman
from any cause related
to or aggravated by the
pregnancy, delivery and
postpartum.
WHO defines maternal death as: The death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy,
irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its
management but not from accidental or incidental causes.

3. EACH MOTHER’S DEATH
has a domino effect in developing countries :
Women
Deprived from
leading long and
prosperous lives
Children
Good nutrition,
school enrollment
and survival rates
Country DECREASE
LOSS in dramatically
productivity
(15.000 M
US$ / year)
Family and
community
IMPOVERISHMENT

4. AN
ESTIMATED
300,000
women die annually due
to maternal causes

5. What are these mothers
dying from?
THE truth is…
WE currently rely on
ESTIMATES.
? + ? + ? + ? = ?

6. More than ½
of the
world’s deaths pass by…
THIS IS A MAJOR CONCERN:
reliable cause-of-death data are crucial for
HEALTH PLANNING and PRIORITIZATION
3
2
1

7. We are missing
VITAL EVENT DATA
to determine
maternal deaths :
88 countries LACK
complete data Over 80%
of all births occur
countries have in countries where
27 NO data maternal cause
of death data
DON’T EXIST or
65 countries have
COMPLETE data
are INCOMPLETE

8. In many settings
what we DON’T know
prevents us
from
reducing
MATERNAL
MORTALITY

9. To effectively address
maternal mortality…
We first need to find out
WHAT
WOMEN
DIE
FROM

10. The solution starts with…
POLITICAL WILL =
More resources so that every country can
ACHIEVE A MINIMUM SET OF VITAL DATA.

11. And grows with…
R&D=
NEW efficient, easy-to-implement, and cost-effective
tools to measure mortality and help close the
data gap!
Minimal
Verbal Census invasive
autopsy autopsies
Household
surveys
Civil Reproductive-
Registration age
system mortality
studies

12. Better data means…
Monitoring
maternal mortality
Designing trends
Accounting
better for individual
interventions deaths
and programs
BETTER MATERNAL HEALTH.

13. For more
information:
www.ISGlobal.or
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