More than half a million women die each year from causes related to pregnancy, and 45 percent of these deaths occur within the 24 hours after delivery. Pregnancy-related conditions, including unsafe abortion, hemorrhage, infection, dysfunctional labor and toxemia, are the leading cause of death among women of reproductive age in many developing countries.

The Population Council has actively participated in efforts to reduce maternal mortality since the early 1980s. The Council's research agenda has sought to provide an evidence-based approach to improve obstetric, postpartum, and family planning services, including the prevention of unsafe abortions, in developing countries.

In addition to the specific projects aimed at making motherhood safer, the Council has a range of ongoing research on topics that significantly affect maternal health including: quality of care of reproductive health services, preventing unsafe abortions, emergency contraception, microbicides to prevent HIV transmission, and behavior modification to reduce the incidence of sexually transmitted infections.

Safe Motherhood research projects include:

• Development of monitoring and evaluation tools to improve assessment and quality of maternity and postpartum care
    
• Gender-based violence during pregnancy
    
• Improving the understanding of the medical and social causes of maternal mortality
    
• Improving the understanding of what works to reduce maternal mortality and improve women's reproductive health
    
• Kangaroo Mother Care 

See Also

• Emergency Contraception
• Microbicides
• Other Council Research on Safe Motherhood and Postpartum Care
• Postabortion Care
• Quality of Services
• Reducing Unsafe Abortion
• RTIs/Sexually Transmitted Infections

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This page updated 25 August 2005

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