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The numbers remain high

Table of Contents Introduction Mothers and children matter - so does their health The early years of maternal and child health Where we are now: a moral and political imperative Mothers, children and the Millennium Development Goals Uneven gains in child health The newborn deaths that went unnoticed Few signs of improvement in maternal health A patchwork of progress, stagnation and reversal The numbers remain high

As the situation improves at a slower pace than expected - and hoped for - the gains in avoided deaths are partially offset by the demographic momentum. The numbers of untimely deaths of mothers and children could well be on the increase, because while rates are dropping, the numbers of mothers, births and children continue to grow. Worldwide, the number of live births will peak at 137 million per year towards 2015 ( ⁶⁸ ): 3.5 million more than at present. Most of the increase will be in sub-Saharan Africa and in parts of Asia - Pakistan and northern India - where the number of births will continue to grow well into the 2020s, even if fertility continues to drop. These are areas where the protection of adolescents and young women against early or unwanted pregnancy is most inadequate, mortality from unsafe abortion most pronounced, giving birth most hazardous and childhood most difficult to survive.

Why is it still necessary for this report to emphasize the importance of focusing on the health of mothers and children, after decades of priority status, and more than 10 years after the United Nations International Conference on Population and Development? Progress has slowed down and is increasingly uneven, with a widening gap between rich and poor countries as well as, often, between the poor and the rich within countries. The reasons for this patchy progress are examined in the next chapter.

Footnote

⁶⁸ United Nations Population Division. World population prospects: the 2002 revision population database (http://esa.un.org/unpp/, accessed 28 December 2004).

Chapter 1: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10