Hamlin Fistula® Relief and Aid Fund





Maternal Health

Over 500,000 women and girls around the world die each year from pregnancy or childbirth related complications.

Most of these deaths (around 99%) are in developing countries. (WHO – World Health Organisation)

Most are preventable.

Statistics

  • Ethiopia has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world.
  • 720 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. (WHO)
  • 25,000 women and girls die each year due to pregnancy–related complications. (USAID)
  • More than 500,000 women and girls in Ethiopia suffer from disabilities resulting from complications during pregnancy and childbirth each year (USAID)

Access to maternal health care and emergency obstetric care in rural areas is very limited and often non existent.

Approximately 85% of the population live in the countryside, many of them at least a days walk to a main road.

Complications during pregnancy and childbirth can result from issues such as:

  • Poor nutrition (e.g. vitamin deficiency)
  • Infections (e.g. sepsis and disease e.g. malaria, HIV, TB)
  • Obstructed labour
  • Haemorrhage (severe bleeding)
  • Eclampsia (a common but treatable hypertensive disorder)

Some of the reproductive problems faced by young Ethiopian women are:

  • Gender inequality
  • Early marriage
  • FGM – Female Genital Mutilation
  • Closely spaced pregnancy and high fertility rate (5.9 children per woman) causes high risk of maternal and infant mortality
  • STD’s and HIV/AIDS

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

At the Millennium Summit in 2000, 192 United Nation member states adopted the United Nations Millennium Declaration. The international community pledged to "spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject poverty and dehumanising conditions of extreme poverty."

Eight goals were established with a target date of 2015:

  1. Eradicate extreme hunger and poverty
  2. Achieve universal primary education
  3. Promote gender equality and empower women
  4. Reduce child mortality
  5. Improve maternal health:
    • Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio
    • Achieve universal access to reproductive health
  6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
  7. Ensure environmental sustainability
  8. Develop a global partnership for development

The Australian Government is highly committed to helping achieve the Millennium Development Goals. As part of its commitment to Goal 5 (Improving maternal health) the Government through AusAID is generously supporting the work of the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia by assisting with the construction of the Hamlin College of Midwives.

For more information on AusAID’s support click here.