USAID Partnership Cuts Maternal Mortality in Half in Target Facilities

For Immediate Release

Monday, October 19, 2015
USAID Press Office
Telephone: +1.202.712.4320 | Email: USAIDPressOfficers@usaid.gov | Twitter: @USAIDPress

MEXICO CITY - The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and its partners released a new report today showing an almost 50 percent reduction in maternal deaths in target facilities in Uganda and Zambia. Equally as unprecedented as the reductions in mortality, these results were achieved in just two and a half years.

The Saving Mothers, Giving Life Mid-Initiative report, released at the Global Maternal Newborn Health Conference in Mexico City, demonstrates the impact of a public-private partnership led by the U.S. government that includes the Ugandan and Zambian governments, Merck for Mothers, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Every Mother Counts, and Project C.U.R.E.  

The results of the report include dramatic progress in just the first half of the initiative:

  • Maternal mortality fell by 53 percent in target facilities in Zambia and by 45 percent in Uganda.
  • Zambia saw an 81 percent increase in the number of women receiving treatment to prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS to their infants.
  • The number of women giving birth in a facility rose by 30 percent in Uganda and by 43 percent in Zambia.
  • A 29% and 37% decline in perinatal mortality and stillbirths in Zambia, respectively.

Saving Mothers, Giving Life makes high-quality, safe childbirth services available and accessible to women and their newborns by focusing on labor, delivery and the first 48 hours of postpartum when most maternal deaths and half of newborn deaths occur.  The initiative addresses the critical delays that cause maternal deaths: delays in seeking services, reaching services, and receiving quality services. Saving Mothers, Giving Life applies a district wide approach by linking communities to all facilities in target districts.

Due to the unprecedented success of this partnership, Saving Mothers, Giving Lives is expanding to 16 new districts in Zambia and Uganda and one state in Nigeria. The model can help achieve the global vision of ending preventable child and maternal deaths.