The maternal-newborn-child health continuum of care: a collective effort to save lives.

Each year millions of women newborns and children die from preventable causes. While the interventions that could save their lives are widely known they are often not available to those most in need. A look at the statistics worldwide shows that each year: More than 60 million women deliver at home without skilled care; About 530000 women die from pregnancy-related complications with some 68000 of those deaths resulting from unsafe abortion; About 4 million babies die within the first month of life (the newborn period) and more than 3 million die as stillbirths; Over 10 million children under the age of 5 die; Moreover nearly all (99 percent) maternal newborn and child deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. (excerpt)