At a U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, "[h]ealth ministers from around the world have agreed that swift action must be taken to reduce the number of women dying during pregnancy and childbirth," the BBC reports. While there appeared to be some agreement "that family planning was the most cost-effective way of [tackling] the problem ... no unanimous declaration was adopted at the Addis Ababa talks," according to the news service (10/26).
More than 150 health ministers attended the meeting about worldwide maternal mortality, Talk Radio News Service reports. The gathering aims to provide the health officials with a forum "to share best practices and lessons learned in reproductive health," the news service writes. UNFPA estimates that an additional $5.5 billion to $6.1 billion will be required by 2015 to meet Millennium Development Goal targets related to maternal health. "Results from the meeting will be shared with parliamentarians from across the globe at the International Conference for Population and Development (ICPD/15) which will take place in Addis Ababa later this week" (Dowlatshahi, 10/26).
The meeting also addressed the need for "primary and emergency healthcare to save the lives of both mothers and babies," BBC writes. "But many governments - like that of the host [country] Ethiopia - have already invested heavily in training midwives only to have them work abroad," the BBC writes. The article includes information about a program in Ethiopia that aims to train midwives who will stay in their communities (10/26). BBC has several audio reports about the meeting. The reports include an interview with Yves Bergevin, the coordinator of the U.N.'s Maternal Health Fund (10/26).
BBC also published features highlighting maternal mortality in different parts of the world: