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SAFE MOTHERHOOD/POSTPARTUM CARE Pregnancy-related conditions, including dysfunctional labor, hemorrhage, infection, toxemia, and unsafe abortion, are the leading cause of death among women of reproductive age in many developing countries; the World Health Organization estimates that 585,000 women die from pregnancy-related conditions each year. Since 1987, when the Safe Motherhood Initiative was created, efforts have been made to raise international awareness about safe motherhood, set goals and programmatic priorities for the global Safe Motherhood Initiative, support national safe motherhood programs, stimulate research, mobilize resources, provide technical assistance, and share information to make childbirth and pregnancy safer. These efforts have rallied interest and commitment from donors, program planners, researchers, and practitioners to reduce the maternal mortality rate, the indicator with the greatest disparity between developed and developing countries. However, in the desire to save women’s lives quickly, rigorous research to determine the most effective, affordable public health interventions was thought to be a wasteful detour. Council researchers have argued that safe motherhood is best served through an evidence-based approach. In a recent article, “Where is the ‘E’ in MCH?” (MCH is the acronym for maternal and child health), Council researchers recommended rigorous evaluation of theoretically promising safe motherhood interventions under real-life conditions before promotion and large-scale program implementation as the most efficient and ethical approach to reducing maternal mortality. Current Projects
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