February 2010

“As president of the G8 in 2010, Canada will champion a major initiative to improve the health of women
and children in the world's poorest regions. Members of the G8 can make a tangible difference in maternal
and child health and Canada will be making this the top priority in June.”
- Prime Minister Stephen Harper, January 26, 2010
No woman should die giving life

In January Prime Minister Stephen Harper put maternal and child health at the top of the 2010 G8 agenda and
pledged Canada’s leadership. It was an important step in support of the world’s poor. Everyone of us has a
mother, but what if becoming a mother was a death sentence? More than 500,000 women die every year from
pregnancy-related causes because they are poor. Today, we live on a planet where motherhood is, depending on
where one lives, a leading cause of death.

One of the best indicators of a child’s health and well-being is a healthy mother. Yet, an astounding 1500
mothers die each day during pregnancy or because of complications during labour and 4 million newborns die
each year within the first 28 days of life.

Ninety-nine per cent of maternal deaths occur in developing countries, primarily in Africa and South Asia. The
probability that a 15-year-old female will die from a complication related to pregnancy and childbirth during her
lifetime is highest in Niger (1 in 7), in stark contrast to Ireland, which had the lowest lifetime risk of 1 in
48,000. Of all the Millennium Development Goals, the global anti-poverty targets the world pledged to meet by
2015, the least progress has been achieved in the area of maternal mortality. The goal of MDG 5 is to reduce the
global maternal mortality rate by 75%, ten years in we are only 9% of the way to meeting that goal.
The challenge that mothers face in Africa
Patuma lives in Malawi and was recently pregnant. During her pregnancy, she walked for miles to access
antenatal care at a hospital in Malawi. While at the hospital, as part of her antenatal exam, Patuma received a
tetanus shot at 5 months to protect her baby from developing the infection that claims up to 70,000 newborns
each year in Africa.

Patuma is one of the lucky ones. Patuma’s baby was born very premature and tiny, weighing less than
1500gms. Many such babies die, but this baby is celebrating 8 days of life, having passed the highest risk days
thanks to ‘Kangaroo Mother Care’ and frequent breastfeeding with expressed breastmilk. This simple
achieveable care could save many of Africa’s 1.16 million babies who die each year, since more than half of
these deaths are preterm babies.

Unfortunately, for many mothers in Africa, they do not have access to hospitals or health extension workers to
help them through their pregnancy, or labour and delivery. Many could be supported without high-tech care.
Safe birthing kits can make childbirth safer for the eighteen million African women who do not give birth in a
health facility every year. These kits contain a plastic sheet, a piece of string, a bar of soap and a clean razor
blade.

The World Bank estimates that providing basic maternal and newborn health services – health care during
pregnancy, delivery and after birth, post-partum family planning, and newborn care – costs about US$3 per
person per year in a low-income setting; and about US$6 in a middle-income setting.
The Canadian Government showing leadership at the G8
Recently, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that he would prioritize the health of millions of the
world's poorest mothers and children. He did so by making the well-being of mothers and children the
signature development theme of the 2010 G8 Summit that will take place in Huntsville in June. This is a very
positive step that could save the lives of millions and a call for action that RESULTS has been pushing for
many months.
The Catalytic Initiative is the mechanism through which the Prime Minister can fulfill his pledge to the world's
mothers and children. By creating the Catalytic Initiative to Save a Million Lives in November 2007, Canada
took a concrete step to improve the health of young children and their mothers. The Catalytic Initiative (CI)
works to strengthen health systems by delivering life-saving health and nutritional services to children and
pregnant women to reduce child and maternal mortality.
Presently, Canadian investments through the CI are helping to train over 40,000 front-line health workers to
provide services to children and pregnant women and to promoting culturally sensitive strategies to improve
women's access to health care. Yet an expansion of the scope of the maternal interventions of the CI could
ensure even greater impact. Maternal health can be improved with basic emergency obstetric care, breastfeeding
promotion, prevention of mother-to child transmission of HIV, immunization, long-lasting insecticide-treated
bed nets to pregnant women and their children and micro-nutrients.
In addition, expansion of the CI into more high-risk countries can have tremendous impact and can ensure that
many more mothers, like Patuma, can be reached and saved. The Prime Minister should be commended for his
leadership on this initiative and should ensure that at the upcoming G8 meetings in June, Canada makes a
significant investment in the CI and encourage other G8 donors to also pledge to save the lives of mothers and
children around the world.

Take Action
1. Write a letter to the editor: Use the Prime Minister's commitment to make progresss on maternal and
child health the signature G8 development initiative as a hook for your letters to the editor. Congratulate
the Prime Minister on his leadership and encourage investments in the Cataltytic Initiative to make his
commitment concrete.
2. Write a letter to the Prime Minister: Congratulate him for taking the leadership to focus on the health of
mothers and their children. Let him know that a significant Canadian investment in an expanded
version of the CI can help to save the lives of mothers and their children. Copy both Minister Bev Oda
and the G8 Sherpa, Leonard Edwards on your letter.
3. Meet with your MP: Explain how the PM's announcement is a step in the right direction, and that the CI
is the made in Canada mechanism for having impact.
Address for Prime Minister Harper: The Right Honourable Stephen Harper, P.C., M.P., Langevin Block, 80
Wellington Street, Ottawa, ON KIA 0A2 or Fax to: 613-941-6900

Address for Minister Bev Oda: The Honourable Bev Oda, P.C., M.P., 200 Promenade du portage, Gatineau,
QC K1A 0G4 or Fax to: 819-953-6088

Address for Deputy Minister and G8 Sherpa Leonard Edwards: Lester B. Pearson Building, 125 Sussex Drive,
Ottawa, ON K1A 0G2 or Fax to: 613-944-0856

References
http://www.acdi-cida.gc.ca/acdi-cida/acdi-cida.nsf/eng/NAD-1249841-JLG
http://www.who.int/pmnch/media/multimedia/photosandstories.pdf
http://www.unfpa.org/mothers/statistics.htm
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