Women die while goals not achieved

More than half a million women over the world every year die during pregnancy or childbirth, and over 90 per cent of these largely preventable deaths occur in developing countries, a United Nations Development Fund for Women (Unifem) report revealed last week.

"This is the most off-track of all (the eight) Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)," the report cited.

This information is shown in MDG 5 with its target of improved maternal health.

Maternal deaths between 1990 and 2005 have seen a less than 7 per cent decrease - a reduction in the maternal mortality ratio from 430 deaths per 100,000 live births in 1990 to 400 in....