Giving birth in Africa - the most dangerous thing a woman can do.
An African woman is 600 times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than a European woman.
In fact, Africa has the world’s highest ratio of women – 1 in 22 – who die in pregnancy or childbirth.
The major direct causes of maternal death and illness include haemorrhages, infection, high blood pressure and obstructed labour.
Yet many of these deaths could be prevented, if only they had access to proper medical care.
However, health services are often inaccessible and women can’t afford them. Many women in developing countries receive no antenatal care during pregnancy, half give birth without any medical support and 70% receive no post-natal care.
Maternal death or disability is not just a personal, family or community tragedy. Poor maternal health is serious threat to Africa’s economic development. If there are no interventions to reduce the current rate of maternal deaths and disabilities in Africa, over the next ten years, $45 billion worth of productivity will be lost.
AMREF is changing this - leading the way to giving direct help to mothers and their children.
AMREF has trained half a million community health workers and midwives, who literally provide a life-line to remote and poor communities. AMREF is also working directly with communities to improve maternal health. This includes:
- improving access to health services including family planning, safe obstetric care and midwives
- preventing and treating malaria in pregnancy
- training midwives and health workers across Africa to ensure more women give birth safely
- raising awareness of personal and food hygiene, basic sanitation and improved access to clean water as essentials for good maternal health.
- protecting women’s reproductive rights, including promoting women’s rights to make informed choices about family planning and childbirth, and protection against gender-based violence.
With your help, we can do more.
We can train more health workers and midwives to provide good quality care to pregnant woman and mothers, we can improve access to basic helath services to ensure that safer motherhood for African women is a reality. Support AMREF in improving the lives of mothers across Africa.