Lack of access to crucial health services, pre-natal check ups, trained midwifes, safe and effective contraception and a lack of education on their importance all continue to put the health and well being of countless mothers and children at risk. With the absence of these services, an easily treated medical condition, such as high blood pressure, can quickly become a death sentence.

We now know that maternal and child health is crucial to the fight against poverty. The death of a mother and her baby not only has a devastating effect on the health and well being of her surviving children, but can help keep entire communities locked in a cycle of poverty .  

With so many mothers and children dying needlessly each day, can it truly be said that this problem is getting the attention it deserves? Is enough is being done to protect mothers and their children? And what can we, as an international community and global citizens, do to help?