Maternal mortality is nothing short of an epidemic. Worldwide, hundreds of thousands of women die from complications during pregnancy or childbirth each year – that's one woman dying nearly every minute of every day – and millions more are left with life-altering disabilities. In some countries, one in seven women dies in pregnancy or childbirth. These women aren't dying because the health community doesn't know how to prevent their deaths; they are dying because the world is failing to help.
“We have to stop being polite about this issue – we need to start marching in the streets. Post-partum hemorrhage is a nice way of saying we let women bleed to death.”
As a leading organization that fights global poverty by empowering women and girls, CARE has made reducing maternal mortality one of its top priorities. With more than 50 years of experience and success developing and implementing maternal and child health programs, CARE works directly with women and communities, empowering them with resources and information while affecting policies to ensure that safe pregnancy and birth are a basic human right.
In rural Ayacucho, Peru, CARE found that only one-third of women who needed obstetric services accessed them, and for those women with complications who reached the health center or hospital, one in 60 did not survive. Our approach to this challenge was to work with community leaders, local women and health workers to understand and address causes that contributed to the high maternal death rate. Watch this video from renowned photographer and CARE supporter Phil Borges to learn how CARE fostered change that is saving women's lives. |
 Katie joined CARE as a senior policy advocate focusing on maternal health issues in February 2009. She is in charge of CARE's legislative activities on maternal health, an advocacy priority for the organization.Read Complete Bio >>
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GET INVOLVED
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Please ask your representative to co-sponsor the Global MOMS Act to reduce mortality and improve the health of mothers and their newborns around the world.
Read stories about our maternal health work in our ''Voices from the Village'' series:
- Learn more about Learning Tours- CARE's unique maternal health program for U.S. policymakers
- Keneya Ciwara: Supporting Family Planning in Mali
- The FEMME Project in Peru: Partnerships for Improved Health
- Going the Extra Mile to Provide and Sustain Family Planning Services in Remote Madagascar
- Meeting Needs for Reproductive Health Services in Post-Conflict Environments: CARE's Family Planning Project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Read our 2010 report on women's empowerment:
Other Ways to Empower Women: Access Africa, Power Within
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