Every two minutes, the loss of a mother shatters a family and threatens the well-being of surviving children. Evidence shows that infants whose mothers die are more likely to die before reaching their second birthday than infants whose mothers survive.

99% of maternal deaths are in developing countries. For every woman who dies, 20 or more will experience serious complications.

In sub-Saharan Africa, where we focus our work, a woman faces a 1 in 39 lifetime risk of dying due to pregnancy or childbirth-related complications. In developed countries, it is 1 in 3,800.

No woman should die giving birth.

To read the full report published by the World Health Organisation please visit the UNFPA website.

Most deaths in childbirth can be prevented fairly easily and at relatively low cost. It costs just £15 for a mother to have a safe birth and £50 to pay for a caesarean for a mother who has complications. Even a small donation can help to save the life of a mother and baby. If you would like to know more then please visit our Donation page

“In Uganda I’ve been working hard to further develop  plans and build partnerships for a brand new integrated maternal health programme. Despite improvements in hospital facilities there is very little in the way of rural community services and access to family planning is a particular problem at village level. Many women and their babies are dying because they are unable to get the care they need. Maternity Worldwide will aim to address this with your help and support. Our priorities will be empowering and enabling women, maternal health education, building capacity locally and training staff at community and village clinics.”

The photo shows vividly the lack of viable community clinics. This structure was earmarked as a clinic in a village with high maternal health need. If you would like to help support our work in Hoima then please go to our donate page.

We are very grateful to the Big Lottery Fund for their grant which helped us to expand the project work in Gimbie. The independent evaluation  of the project showed that the work had achieved outstanding results. To find out more in the illustrated summary of the evaluation then please follow the link here.  To read the full report please click here.

By the end of the time there it was clear to the group that the need was not only huge but ongoing and so they have decided to set up mobile clinics that could continue to answer that need. For the full story see here. To donate to this fantastic project please go to the group’s justgiving page here.

Read her blog to find out about the fascinating story of her  life at the project . Visit Kate’s fundraising page to help her raise funds to allow the work to continue.

Visit Roger’s Just Giving page