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Every single maternal death is preventable.

Right now, modern medicine, combined with well-resourced systems of care (such as visits from community health workers and family planning) have the potential to make death during pregnancy and childbirth a thing of the past.  

Together, we can cure injustice.

Donate now to save lives

Complications in pregnancy and childbirth are preventable with early intervention and proper resources. Ensuring a safe experience requires a fully functioning health system.

In any country, expectant mothers need referral systems, operating rooms, blood banks, reliable electricity, passable roads, and powerful antibiotics to survive childbirth. They need community health workers, nurses, midwives, drivers, doctors, and surgeons. 

Building that system isn't unknown or untested. It doesn't take a silver bullet. It just takes time, effort, and support.

Donate to provide that support today. 

The Maternal Center of Excellence

In Kono, Sierra Leone—where 1 in 20 women die in pregnancy or childbirth—we’re building a state-of-the-art teaching hospital, the Maternal Center of Excellence (MCOE), to make maternal mortality a thing of the past. 

  • The 166-bed facility will be complete with a NICU, surgical suites, and simulation labs.
  • Equity-minded clinicians will be trained using never-before-available clinical education opportunities, saving lives for generations to come.
  • 65% of the construction team are women, changing the lives of women before the hospital is even opened.
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The reality of maternal mortality

Maternal health is a “report card” for the strength of an entire health system—and by that report card, much of the world is failing. A woman’s lifetime risk of dying in pregnancy or childbirth: 

  • In Norway is 1 in 25,700. 
  • In the United States, it is 1 in 3,800.
  • In Malawi, the rate is 1 in 32.
  • In Liberia, it’s 1 in 28. 

Maternal mortality is a silent, ongoing emergency. One that we do not have to accept as inevitable. Donate today to change this reality. 

The path forward: care not despair

Mothers should have access to health care that is their human right. Just yesterday, about 800 women died in childbirth—94% of them in low- and middle-income countries.

These deaths are a demonstration of injustice, not disease. 

Together, we can lead with care, and light the way forward. Make a donation today to support progress and make pregnancy and childbirth safe, everywhere. 

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No woman should die bringing life into the world. In epicenters of maternal mortality, PIH is strengthening systems to make this idea a reality and advancing women's rights with dignified health care.

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