The Mother’s Day Every Day Campaign (led by the White Ribbon Alliance and CARE), and the Huffington Post continue their “Mother’s Day Every Day for Healthier Families, Communities and Nations” blog series this week with this post by Representative Lois Capps:

Excerpts below, full piece here

Each May, we celebrate and honor mothers. The treasure of motherhood is something that people of every political philosophy and walk of life can agree on. But despite this veneration of motherhood, giving birth can still be dangerous, especially in places where it is difficult to access healthcare.

Every minute of every day, a woman somewhere in the world dies as a result of pregnancy or childbirth–amounting to more than half a million fatalities each year. In developing nations, a woman’s lifetime risk of dying from reproductive problems is as high as one in seven, and problems with pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of the disease burden among women.

But the problem is far from isolated to the developing world. While the average risk of a woman dying in childbirth is 1 in 8000 for industrialized countries, the risk in the United States is much higher: 1 in 4800. In fact, the U.S. ranks 41st in the world in terms of maternal mortality.

-Margaret McDonnell, US NGO Partnerships & Faith Relations Team