International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics

Family planning can help reduce maternal deaths by 70 per cent, according to a new report.

The Guttmacher Institute and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has released a report that documents the benefits that would come from increasing the global investment in both family planning services and pregnancy-related newborn care, NewVision.co.ug reported.

Currently around 550,000 pregnancy-related deaths and 3.5 million newborn deaths occur a year.

These could be prevented by helping women time and space their pregnancies and providing greater standards of basic maternal and newborn care, according to the report.

Approximately 215 million women who want to avoid pregnancy are not using an effective method of contraception and only half of the women who give birth receive the antenatal, delivery and newborn care they require.

According to the report, doubling the $12 billion (£7.96 billion) that is spent globally on providing that care would yield a 70 per cent reduction in maternal deaths and a 44 per cent decrease in newborn deaths.

A birth centre in Texas, US, has dramatically improved the health of women giving birth and their babies, Chrin.com reported.

The percentage of babies born prematurely or with low birth weights at the centre is less than half the Texas average.

Posted by Alexandra George