United Nations Population Fund

www.unfpa.org

UNFPA supports countries in using population data for policies and programs to reduce poverty and to ensure that every pregnancy is wanted, every birth is safe, every young person is free of HIV/AIDS, and every girl and woman is treated with dignity and respect. One of the main areas of UNFPA’s work is making motherhood safer. Every minute, a woman in the developing world dies from treatable complications of pregnancy or childbirth. Every minute, a family is devastated. The lives of surviving children are put at risk. Communities suffer. And for every woman who dies, as many as 20 others are seriously harmed by fistula or other injuries of childbearing.

UNFPA's strategy for preventing maternal mortality includes:

Family planning to reduce unintended pregnancies
Skilled care at all births
Timely emergency obstetric care for all women who develop complications.

UNFPA also advocates at many levels for the right of mothers to give birth safely. It spearheads the global Campaign to End Fistula, a collaborative initiative to prevent this devastating injury of childbirth and to restore the health and dignity of those who have been living with its consequences. And it is working to address the shortage of skilled midwives in much of the developing world.

“Stepping up efforts to save mothers lives”

The other main areas of UNFPA’s work relate to the close links between sustainable development and reproductive health and gender equality. Reproductive health is critical to achieving international development goals, particularly MDG 5. Reproductive health is also a human right. Yet, reproductive health conditions are the leading cause of death and illness in women of childbearing age worldwide, and at least 200 million women want to plan their families or space their children, but lack access to safe and effective contraception. UNFPA promotes a holistic approach to reproductive health care that includes:

Universal access to accurate information, a range of safe and affordable contraceptive methods, and sensitive counseling
Ensuring that quality obstetric and antenatal care is available to all pregnant women
Prevention and management of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV Investments in reproductive health save and improve lives, slow the spread of HIV and encourage gender equality.

These benefits extend from the individual to the family and from the family to the world. To learn more about UNFPA’s work, click here.