“Maternal Health: An Executive Summary for The Lancet’s Series,” The Lancet (September 2016)

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URL: www.thelancet.com/series/maternal-health-2016

Abstract

Executive Summary: Each year, about 210 million women become pregnant and about 140 million newborn babies are delivered. The sheer scale of maternal health issues makes maternal well being and survival vital concerns. A decade after The Lancet published a Series on maternal survival, a new Series of six papers brings our knowledge of maternal health, its epidemiology, successes, and current failings together, and at a crucial time within the sustainable development framework to 2030. The Series concludes with a call to action setting out five key targets which need to be met to ensure the progression of broader sustainable development goals (SDGs).

This executive summary from The Lancet examines the global demographic, epidemiological, and socioeconomic factors that both promote and prevent access to quality maternal healthcare. As the global medical community looks to the UN’s sustainable development goals for guidance in the years to come, understanding its principles and how experts anticipate them being put into practice will be an important factor in advocating for providing quality healthcare for women which is rooted in their creation in God’s image.