Linking maternal health care to family planning services is in itself a step towards broadening these services and moving towards the reproductive health approach. The projects responded to national concerns about alarming levels of maternal mortality. After considering a specific situation and taking into account the given resources, planners should select programming action with the greatest potential impact on maternal mortality. Only recently has updated information become available concerning which actions are the most beneficial in reducing maternal deaths.
Every woman can experience a complication during pregnancy and delivery.
Severe bleeding, especially in the post-partum period, which is unpredictable and sudden in onset, causes a quarter of all maternal deaths. Scarce resources should not be spent on activities that have proved less effective in improving maternity care, such as isolated TBA training and risk screening during antenatal care visits. The positive effects of strong country commitment are almost universally recognized as one of the main factors behind programme success. The evaluation of programmes, however, receives little attention. Maternal deaths are a relatively rare event, and scarce resources should not be spent in trying to determine precise maternal mortality ratios.