One of our bicycle ambulances at one of our women's maternal health education groups in Malawi
Sadly, every day across the world 800 women die in pregnancy and childbirth, with 62% of maternal deaths taking place in Sub-Saharan Africa. Thanks to the incredible support of Radio 4 listeners, together we can Save Lives in Childbirth.
We are amazed with the amount of support we have been shown following our Radio 4 appeal in April. With the wonderful help of Emily Watson and the listeners of Radio 4, we have been able to raise a fantastic £21,000 to help us carry on Saving Lives in Childbirth, thanks to a huge amount of kindness and generosity, to which we are extremely thankful.
In this country we absolutely take it for granted that when you give birth, you’re in a safe environment and that you will receive all the help that is needed. In many places around the world, giving birth is a very, very dangerous thing to do, and the tragedy of that is that it is an utterly preventable situation.
Emily Watson
Here at Maternity Worldwide, our core mission is to reduce the number of women and babies dying or injured in pregnancy and childbirth, and to do so, we adopt an integrated approach to address each of the issues women face when trying to access safe childbirth. As well as training midwives and skilled birth attendants to ensure maternal care is safe and appropriate, we also ensure that women are able to access this care with the provision of bicycle and motorbike ambulances. We also run women empowerment and education groups so women are informed on when to seek medical help.
Thanks to the tremendous support we have received since the appeal, we will be able to keep up our work towards a world in which all women and their babies have access to safe and appropriate childbirth, regardless of where they live.
This amount of money could enable us to help fund for vital necessities listed below/With the money raised from this appeal we can help fund the following projects:
- Provide 851 safe births - It costs just £18 to provide a safe birth for a mother and her baby.
- Provide approximately 766 women with seed funding loans - These loans encourage women to start their own small businesses to enable them to become financially independent and make their own decisions about their maternal healthcare.
- Buy 30 bicycle ambulances - Bicycle ambulances are situated in rural and remote areas with difficult terrain to help to improve the access to maternal and newborn healthcare.
- Pay for the full training of 5 student midwives in Malawi - Having a midwife or skilled birth attendant present at birth is one of the most effective interventions to save lives.
You can find out more about the charity .