Every minute a woman dies from lack of life-saving emergency obstetric care. Addressing this need is the centrepiece of UNFPA's efforts to make motherhood safer. The new Maternal Mortality Update explains the critical importance of timely medical interventions hen complications develop -- as they do in more than 5 per cent of all deliveries. It also documents UNFPA's efforts to reduce maternal mortality throughout the developing world.

For too long, efforts to reduce maternal mortality stalled, in part because the facts underlying the problem --and the best strategies to address it --were poorly understood. This report documents UNFPA's efforts to address maternal mortality using a strategic and practical evidence-based approach in a region where data has been scarce,and where too many women have died. Increasing access to emergency obstetric care is central to this approach.

More than half a million women die each year as a result of pregnancy-related complications. This brochure describes UNFPA's three-part strategy to prevent this tragic loss and some of the progress that is occurring in countries around the world. Improving maternal health is one of the eight internationally agreed on Millennium Development Goals and a top priority for UNFPA.