Maternal Health Meeting at Number 10 Downing Street

Dr. Helene Gayle, president and CEO of CARE, along with three members of a travelling delegation, met with Sarah Brown, wife of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and representatives from the White Ribbon Alliance U.K. and the Maternal Mortality Campaign.

All are focused on getting maternal health on the G8 agenda and pressing for the advancement of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) that is the furthest behind – MDG-5.

Dr. Gayle, who arrived in London after visiting maternal and child health programs in Sierra Leone – a country with one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, stressed the need for countries and communities to develop and implement policies and measurable plans that protect and empower women with improved maternal health and voluntary family planning services.

"CARE has seen that with targeted investments in proven interventions such as training skilled birth attendants and creating emergency transport systems we can dramatically reduce the number of women dying in pregnancy and childbirth," says Dr. Gayle. "Immediate action at the global level can bring concrete results in a short time. If given global attention, we can make the next five years look dramatically different from past."

Participants in the meeting included Sarah Brown, Helene Gayle; Jacquelline Fuller of Google; Lucinda Roy, a professor and author; Anita McBride, chair of the Fulbright Scholarship Board; Jo Cox of the Maternal Mortality Campaign; and Brigid McConville of White Ribbon Alliance U.K. Geoffrey Dennis, chief executive of CARE U.K., was also present.