Church/Vatican
Vatican urges measures to lessen maternal deaths
June 23rd, 2010
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The Vatican has urged the international community to implement social and health care measures to reduce what it called the “shocking” number of maternal deaths around the world.
Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican’s representative to U.N. agencies in Geneva, addressed a maternal mortality panel of the Human Rights Council in Geneva last week. Experts estimate that 350,000-500,000 women die each year during or shortly after pregnancy.
Archbishop Tomasi noted that most maternal deaths occur in the developing world, and he said there was a strong correlation between maternal mortality and neonatal death. Each year, about 3 million babies die during their first week of life, 3 million are stillborn and another 2.3 million die during their first year of life, he said.
The Catholic Church has a long history of caring for mothers and newborns, especially through its hospitals and maternity and pediatric clinics, he said. The church takes a holistic approach that gives priority to the rights of mother and child, including the unborn, he said.
“Policies aimed at combating maternal mortality and child mortality need to strike a delicate balance between the rights of the mother and those of the child, both of whom are rights bearers, the first of which is the right to life,” he said.
He pointed to specific improvements that can be made in social and health sectors to prevent maternal deaths, including universal pre- and postnatal care, adequate transportation of medical facilities, skilled birth attendants, appropriate antibiotics, and clean blood and water supplies.
From June 25, 2010 issue of Catholic San Francisco.
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