The most natural thing in the world is a life-threatening event for millions of women. Every year around 600,000 women die from complications connected to pregnancy or childbirth.

In developed countries the risks to women's health have been greatly reduced because most women have easy access to medical care. This is not the case in the poorest parts of the world. Ninety nine per cent of the women who die every year as a result of pregnancy or childbirth come from developing countries.

Deaths 'avoidable'

The WHO wants to cut maternal mortality by 75%

Most of these deaths, the many cases of disease and disability and also the deaths of over 1.5 million children each year could be prevented by better access to medical care, according to the World Health Organisation.

BBC Correspondent Imogen Foulkes on the UN and women's rights

To combat the problem the WHO has designated 1998 the year of "Safe Motherhood" and it is also the focus of World Health Day, which takes place on 7 April.

One of its main aims is to cut global maternal mortality by 75% by the year 2015.

This ambitious plan is to be discussed on Wednesday at a high level meeting of world development agencies in Washington DC. Representatives from the World Bank, WHO and Unicef among others will sit down with the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and Hilary Clinton to discuss a co-ordinated approach.

'Journey into the unknown'

Hillary Clinton: to attend the conference in Washington

The Director General of the World Health Organisation, Hiroshi Nakajima, said: "In many developing countries ... each pregnancy represents a journey into the unknown from which all too many women never return."

"It must be recognised that the reduction of maternal mortality is not only a matter of effective health care but also one of social justice.

"The risks that women face in bringing life into the world are not mere misfortunes or unavoidable natural disadvantages but injustices that societies have a duty to remedy through their political health and legal systems," he said.

Britain's role

Clare Short: "We must do better"

In Britain the Department for International Development has said that it is taking "a leadership role" in investing in women's reproductive health around the world.

Its help has led to maternal health programmes being set up in Nepal and Malawi and bilateral co-operation with around 20 countries in Africa and South Asia.

Britain is contributing funds and expertise that go towards the training of health staff, renovating hospital departments, improving the supply of essential equipment and drugs and developing safe motherhood plans in conjunction with local authorities.

Clare Short, Britain's Secretary of State for International Development said: "Nowhere are the obstacles faced by women to health - and the inequalities faced by poor women - revealed more starkly than in the figures for maternal mortality. Without better access to obstetric care, women will continue to die in pregnancy and childbirth.

"These are not principally matters of science. They are matters of political and moral choice and will," she said.
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