GLOBAL: Family Planning Can Reduce Maternal Deaths by 70 Percent
The New Vision published an op-ed on 28 March by Sharon Camp, President and CEO of the Guttmacher Institute and Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, Executive Director of UNFPA, arguing for increased investment in family planning services in order to reduce maternal mortality. Based on the findings of Adding It Up, a joint Guttmacher/UNFPA report released in 2009, they argued that doubling that modest investment would yield staggering results: a 70% reduction in maternal deaths and a 44% reduction in the deaths of newborns. A host of other additional health, societal and economic benefits would follow. The report documents the interrelationship between family planning and better maternal and newborn health. It demonstrates that providing women with family planning information and services frees up scarce resources that could be used to provide universal access to maternal and newborn care. Read: The New Vision