Updates

Ann Starrs, president of Family Care International, wrote an article, “Half a Million Reasons,” in the current issue of Public Service Review: International Development. In it, Starrs provides an update on progress toward MDG 5, on the challenges that still lie in the way of its fulfillment, and on recent causes for hope.

There was a great feature in the Washington Post this weekend all about maternal mortality in Sierra Leone. Unfortunately, Sierra Leone has an extremely high maternal mortality rate -- 1 in 8 women die during childbirth.

There's a great blog post on RH Reality Check today about maternal mortality in Africa: On Maternal Mortality, Why Africa Falls So Far Behind. In the post, Edna Adan Ismail lists some of the reasons why African women die in pregnancy and childbirth.

Everyday, over 1,400 women and adolescent girls die needlessly from giving birth and 40,000 more suffer injuries and disabilities that can last a lifetime. Complications of pregnancy are the leading cause of death for young women aged 15 to 19 in the developing world.