Prematurity, on its own, causes some ten percent of newborn deaths. Each year for a half-million women the complications of pregnancy are fatal. The causes of these deaths are essentially the same around the world. The complications that cause the death and disability of mothers also damage the infants they are carrying. 1955 Newborns die or are disabled because of poor maternal health, inadequate care during pregnancy, inappropriate management and poor hygiene during delivery and the first critical hours after birth and lack of newborn care.
Paediatricians have to recognize maternal health as an infrastructure for the unborn child.
Special emphasis should be given to the prenatal, natal, and neonatal periods which bridge maternal and child health. The World Health Organization established the Maternal Health and Safe Motherhood Programme in order to reduce both maternal and neonatal mortality by the year 2000. The Safe Motherhood Programme was created to ensure that women get safely through pregnancy and childbirth and produce a healthy infant. There is general agreement, therefore, that serious interventions are needed to save the lives of mothers and babies. This implies that safe motherhood interventions should be applied holistically within a general health context that promotes equal access to, and quality of, care.