Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current issue
    • Past issues
    • Early releases
    • Collections
    • Sections
    • Blog
    • Infographics & illustrations
    • Podcasts
    • COVID-19 Articles
  • Authors
    • Overview for authors
    • Submission guidelines
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Forms
    • Editorial process
    • Editorial policies
    • Peer review process
    • Publication fees
    • Reprint requests
    • Open access
  • CMA Members
    • Overview for members
    • Earn CPD Credits
    • Print copies of CMAJ
  • Subscribers
    • General information
    • View prices
  • Alerts
    • Email alerts
    • RSS
  • JAMC
    • À propos
    • Numéro en cours
    • Archives
    • Sections
    • Abonnement
    • Alertes
    • Trousse média 2022
  • CMAJ JOURNALS
    • CMAJ Open
    • CJS
    • JAMC
    • JPN

User menu

Search

  • Advanced search
CMAJ
  • CMAJ JOURNALS
    • CMAJ Open
    • CJS
    • JAMC
    • JPN
CMAJ

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current issue
    • Past issues
    • Early releases
    • Collections
    • Sections
    • Blog
    • Infographics & illustrations
    • Podcasts
    • COVID-19 Articles
  • Authors
    • Overview for authors
    • Submission guidelines
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Forms
    • Editorial process
    • Editorial policies
    • Peer review process
    • Publication fees
    • Reprint requests
    • Open access
  • CMA Members
    • Overview for members
    • Earn CPD Credits
    • Print copies of CMAJ
  • Subscribers
    • General information
    • View prices
  • Alerts
    • Email alerts
    • RSS
  • JAMC
    • À propos
    • Numéro en cours
    • Archives
    • Sections
    • Abonnement
    • Alertes
    • Trousse média 2022
  • Visit CMAJ on Facebook
  • Follow CMAJ on Twitter
  • Follow CMAJ on Pinterest
  • Follow CMAJ on Youtube
  • Follow CMAJ on Instagram
News

Progress made in maternal and child health, but challenges remain

Roger Collier
CMAJ December 08, 2009 181 (12) E283-E284; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.109-3091
Roger Collier
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Figures & Tables
  • Responses
  • Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

How can you tell if a country’s health care system is functioning well? Is life expectancy the key indicator, or wait times? Maybe it’s a matter of dollars spent on health care or efficiencies achieved in hospitals? Or maybe the answer can be found in maternity wards and pediatric departments, suggests Bridget Lynch, a board member of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health.

“If maternal health and child health are good, it is de facto a good health care system,” Lynch told delegates to an Oct. 27 session on the role of government in global health diplomacy at the 16th Canadian Conference on International Health in Ottawa, Ontario.

A society has little chance to thrive if it fails to keep its mothers healthy and its babies alive, suggested Lynch. But young children in developing nations continue to suffer preventable deaths in alarming numbers. Nine million children under age five die annually — 40% in the first weeks of their lives. The mothers of these children often don’t fare much better. More than 500 000 women around the world die of pregnancy-related causes each year. This problem, though of immense scale, has historically attracted little attention from policy makers or the public.

“Women have been so invisible for so long,” said Lynch.

There has, however, been some progress since 2005, when the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health — a coalition of about 300 organizations working under a World Health Organization umbrella — was established. Some countries have seen sharp declines in infant mortality. More children around the world are receiving vaccines and vitamin A supplements. Several high-profile people have chosen to champion maternal mortality reduction, including United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and Sarah Brown, wife of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Figure
  • Download figure
  • Open in new tab
  • Download powerpoint

Christopher MacLennan (left), Alex Palacios (centre) and Bridget Lynch (right) discuss the role of government in addressing global health issues such as maternal and child health. Image courtesy of Roger Collier

The most significant change, perhaps, is that political leaders have in recent years recognized the importance of improving maternal and infant health. In 2008, for the first time, leaders of the G8 nations committed to address these issues as part of a comprehensive approach to delivering basic health care. Reducing infant mortality and improving maternal health are also two of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that 192 United Nations member states have agreed to achieve by 2015.

“To get maternal health into the MDGs was an enormous challenge,” said Lynch.

Other challenges remain.

These include a lack of consensus on a core package of interventions for mothers and children at risk, insufficient coordination of the purchasing and delivery of commodities for maternal and child health, and the dearth of health workers dedicated to making universal coverage of reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health services a reality. Another major problem is that it takes a very long time to get new vaccines and immunizations for children into developing nations.

“When a new vaccine is developed, it can take 15 years before it reaches people in poor countries. In the meantime, kids die,” said Alex Palacios, a special representative of the executive office of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations, who was on the panel with Lynch.

The need for increased funding to address maternal and child health issues is also a major challenge. And in a world rife with problems in many areas outside of health, getting governments to commit more money to specific health issues will remain a challenge, suggested Christopher MacLennan, director general of the Canadian International Development Agency and the third member of the panel.

Donor states, such as Canada, must choose between many competing priorities when giving money to developing nations. And sometimes these nations don’t have health matters — as important as they may be — at the top of their lists. Even if health is a priority, there are still many different problems — from HIV/AIDS to malaria to malnutrition —that need to be addressed.

“Not only does global health have to compete with other priorities, such as trade and agriculture, it has to compete with itself,” said MacLennan. “The most fundamental way to get additional funding is to show that the money currently being spent is having an impact.”

Footnotes

  • Published at www.cmaj.ca on Oct. 28

PreviousNext
Back to top

In this issue

Canadian Medical Association Journal: 181 (12)
CMAJ
Vol. 181, Issue 12
8 Dec 2009
  • Table of Contents
  • Index by author

Article tools

Respond to this article
Print
Download PDF
Article Alerts
To sign up for email alerts or to access your current email alerts, enter your email address below:
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on CMAJ.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Progress made in maternal and child health, but challenges remain
(Your Name) has sent you a message from CMAJ
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the CMAJ web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
Progress made in maternal and child health, but challenges remain
Roger Collier
CMAJ Dec 2009, 181 (12) E283-E284; DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.109-3091

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
‍ Request Permissions
Share
Progress made in maternal and child health, but challenges remain
Roger Collier
CMAJ Dec 2009, 181 (12) E283-E284; DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.109-3091
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like

Jump to section

  • Article
    • Footnotes
  • Figures & Tables
  • Responses
  • Metrics
  • PDF

Related Articles

  • No related articles found.
  • PubMed
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • No citing articles found.
  • Google Scholar

More in this TOC Section

  • Longer family medicine residency: Boon or bane to doctor supply?
  • The evolving picture of long COVID
  • When are shared decisions false choices?
Show more News

Similar Articles

 

View Latest Classified Ads

Content

  • Current issue
  • Past issues
  • Collections
  • Sections
  • Blog
  • Podcasts
  • Alerts
  • RSS
  • Early releases

Information for

  • Advertisers
  • Authors
  • Reviewers
  • CMA Members
  • Media
  • Reprint requests
  • Subscribers

About

  • General Information
  • Journal staff
  • Editorial Board
  • Advisory Panels
  • Governance Council
  • Journal Oversight
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Copyright and Permissions
  • Accessibiity
  • CMA Civility Standards
CMAJ Group

Copyright 2022, CMA Impact Inc. or its licensors. All rights reserved. ISSN 1488-2329 (e) 0820-3946 (p)

All editorial matter in CMAJ represents the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of the Canadian Medical Association or its subsidiaries.

To receive any of these resources in an accessible format, please contact us at CMAJ Group, 500-1410 Blair Towers Place, Ottawa ON, K1J 9B9; p: 1-888-855-2555; e: cmajgroup@cmaj.ca

Powered by HighWire