Healthy mothers = healthy societies

by Dr. Keith Martin, National Post - July 4, 2009

When G8 leaders meet in L'Aquila, Italy, next week, investing in maternal health is the most important thing they can do to meet the UN's Millennium Development Goals.

Parliamentarians from around the world met in Rome last week and concluded that prioritizing maternal health in times of crisis is a strategic investment that will produce substantial reductions in social and healthcare costs and will have the most powerful effect on population health as a whole. Coupled with maternal health, building up primary healthcare systems is the most effective investment one can make to improve the health of a population. This stands in contrast to the politically popular but significantly less effective investments that focus on specific diseases.

The G8 meeting in L'Aquila from July 8-10 cannot be another talk shop. The final appeal from the Rome conference -- where I chaired the final appeal drafting committee -- calls for increased training and pay for primary health care workers, access to a full range of contraceptive options, access to affordable drugs and diagnostics and the provision of adequate nutrition, especially micronutrients.

The preventable deaths of more than 530,000 pregnant women every year have left a sea of orphans and are destroying the social and economic fabric of developing nations. The G8 leaders have been given a plan of action. It should be implemented forthwith.