Maternal Health during Pregnancy and Self Delivery

Childbirth is a universally celebrated event, an occasion for merry making. Yet for many thousands of women childbirth is experienced as a private hell that may end in death. In fact, maternal death and injury in developing countries constitute a tragedy of vast proportions, yet it is a tragedy that has been largely ignored by those who set national and international health priorities because those who suffer generally live in remote places, are poor illiterate and politically powerless.