Deliver for Good: Improve Maternal and Newborn Health and Nutrition

Deliver for Good: Improve Maternal and Newborn Health and Nutrition

In spite of substantial advances in maternal and newborn health over recent decades, roughly 300,000 girls and women still die due to pregnancy-related complications every year. At present, the global community largely agrees on what needs to be done to prevent these deaths and improve the health and wellbeing of women and babies. Clinical interventions and health services must be delivered across a continuum of care – before pregnancy, during pregnancy, and following pregnancy. There must also be an enhanced focus on the role that nutrition plays in saving lives and safeguarding the health of women and newborns.

As part of the Deliver for Good campaign by Women Deliver, the FCI Program of MSH produced this brief on the importance of investing in maternal and newborn health and nutrition to achieve progress for all. This brief describes the global state of maternal and newborn health and nutrition; reviews the interventions that address the leading causes of maternal and newborn death and improve the overall health and wellbeing of women and newborns; makes the case for investment in maternal and newborn health and nutrition; and calls on governments, civil society, academia, media, affected populations, the United Nations, and the private sector to take action for girls and women.