Why CommonHealth?
Because in India:
- With a ratio of 540 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, one woman dies every five minutes. This results in 136,000 women dying every year due to complications related to pregnancy, childbirth and unsafe abortion.
- Although infant mortality rates have declined, neonatal deaths have stagnated. At the rate of 44 per 1000 live births, neonatal deaths account for up to 46 % of under-five child mortality.
- Unsafe abortion causes 9-18% of all maternal deaths and 24-67% of complications from unsafe abortion result in significant morbidity.
- 75% of life-threatening maternal complications occur at the time of childbirth or soon after delivery. 75% of deaths among newborns occur in the first week, with 25-50% occurring on the first day. 61% of maternal morbidity occurs mainly during childbirth or after delivery. Yet 59% of women give birth without a skilled attendant and 83% of women do not receive any postnatal care at all.
The great majority of maternal deaths are needless. They can be avoided if skilled attendance at birth is available and if referral linkages to emergency obstetric care and safe abortion are effective and affordable. Nonetheless maternal health is not only about preventing maternal deaths through obstetric services. Its essence requires affirming women’s well-being and rights to be pregnant on their own terms and to carry through with their pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood with no adverse consequences to themselves or their children. Discrimination that warps women’s rights to maternal health must be addressed and crucial linkages to neonatal health and safe abortion must be made.
Governments, despite their responsibility to ensure women’s rights to maternal-neonatal health and safe abortion, fail to support health care providers and the health systems they belong to. Limited antenatal services and institutional deliveries of poor quality are the norm, along with few linkages to specialist services and little follow-up during the postnatal period. At the same time unregulated and privatised health care services encourage irrational medical interventions leading to iatrogenic risks and financial indebtedness. Considering this context, to ensure good maternal-neonatal health care and access to safe abortion services for all, a focus on integrated, accountable and equitable health systems that provide accessible, affordable and effective services is essential.
For our vision to be a reality, advocacy is required not only with policymakers at national and state capitals, but with key actors at various levels: health service providers within the public and private sectors; among researchers; civil society organisations working on health; members of local government at village, taluk and district levels; and at community level with individual women, men and children, as well as with families and other social groups. Without such mobilisation and engagement, progressive policies and legislations that are developed and adopted, flounder at the stage of implementation.
Vision
A society that ensures maternal-neonatal health care and safe abortion for all women, especially from the marginalised communities in India.
Mission
- To raise visibility about the unacceptably high numbers of preventable mortality and morbidity among mothers and newborns, and the lack of access to safe abortion, especially among the disadvantaged.
- To mobilise advocates from different constituencies who will collectively generate pressure in a deliberate, organised and systematic effort to
- Ensure effective implementation of relevant policies and programmes.
- Contribute development of new policies and change existing ones when needed.
- Build a rights based and gender sensitive perspective within communities, health care providers, researchers, administrators, elected representatives and the media.