Much literature has celebrated the recent World Health Organization report that maternal mortality declined by a third in the past decade. Though this downward trend is remarkable, the global public health community is concerned that the declaration will shift attention away from sustaining and increasing efforts to address maternal deaths throughout the world. Also important is decreasing maternal morbidity, which creates huge costs in terms of human suffering, health care expenditures, and lost productivity.
Health systems strengthening reduces maternal mortality
The headline The Top Three Things We’re Not Doing to Save Mother’s Lives recently caught our attention. CapacityPlus’s result areas—global leadership, policy and planning, education and training, workforce effectiveness, and evaluation and knowledge-sharing—are key pieces of the health systems strengthening puzzle needed to improve health outcomes for men, women, and children. Addressing the global health worker shortage, which is most critical in countries with higher maternal mortality rates, will strengthen health systems and improve more than just maternal outcomes. Read more »
