Description

Goal 5: Improve maternal health

Indicators

Target 5a: Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio

• 5.1 Maternal mortality ratio
• 5.2 Proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel

Target 5b: Achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health

• 5.3 Contraceptive prevalence rate
• 5.4 Adolescent birth rate
• 5.5 Antenatal care coverage (at least one visit and at least four visits)
• 5.6 Unmet need for family planning

Are we on target?
Maternal mortality remains unacceptably high across much of the developing world. In 2005, more than 500,000 women died during pregnancy, childbirth or in the six weeks after delivery. Ninety-nine per cent of these deaths occurred in the developing regions, with sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia accounting for 86 per cent of them.

In sub-Saharan Africa, a woman’s risk of dying from treatable or preventable complications of pregnancy and childbirth over the course of her lifetime is 1 in 22, compared to 1 in 7,300 in the developed regions.