Bangladesh, a safer place for mothers
Photo: AMDADUL HUQ / DRIKNEWS
Above is the headline of a news item published in the USAID's health newsletter 'FRONTLINES' special edition (April/May 2011) which reported that maternal deaths in Bangladesh fell from 322 per 100,000 in 2001 to 194 per 100,000 in 2010. This is indeed a tremendous accomplishment and the credit goes to the USAID's family planning programs in Bangladesh as well as the Government of Bangladesh. It may be mentioned here that each year, more than 150,000 women die in the first 48 hours after birth throughout the world; 1.6 million newborns die in that same time frame. Ninety-nine percent of these pregnancy-related deaths occur in the developing world. Under this critical situation, maternal deaths decreased by 40 percent during the last nine years in Bangladesh which is a significant achievement. It is sincerely expected that Bangladesh would hold the trend of decreasing maternal deaths and it would be successful to meeting the 2015 deadline for the United Nations' fifth Millennium Development Goal: to reduce the maternal mortality rate by three-fourths.
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