How UNICEF Supports Maternal Health

Working to improve and expand maternal health for women everywhere

Although strides have been made in maternal health worldwide, far too many women are still dying — largely from treatable and preventable conditions.

Between 2000 and 2023, there was a 40 percent global decline in maternal deaths, according to the UN's Trends in Maternal Mortality report. And yet, a maternal death continues to occur almost every two minutes. The situation is most dire in low and lower-middle-income countries, where about 90 percent of maternal deaths occur.

UNICEF is working with partners and countries around the world to ensure all women have access to quality maternal health care and nutrition to reduce preventable maternal deaths worldwide.

Related: Progress toward reducing preventable maternal deaths has slowed and could even reverse as funding cuts threaten essential health services, according to a UN report.

Improving maternal nutrition before, during and after pregnancy

Women have unique nutritional requirements throughout their lives, especially related to pregnancy. But in many parts of the world, women have limited access to nutritious foods and adequate services, negatively impacting their ability to stay healthy and give their babies the best chance to survive and thrive.

Worldwide, women’s diets are impacted by many factors like food access and affordability, often leading to limited fruits, vegetables, dairy, fish and meat. Social and cultural norms can also constrain women’s ability to make decisions about their own nutrition and care.

UNICEF supports programs that make nutritious foods more accessible and affordable for all women, as well as leveraging behavior change communication strategies to promote nutritious diets and shifting cultural norms.

One way UNICEF improves the quality of women’s diets is through large-scale food fortification programs like salt iodization and the fortification of white flour, rice and cooking oil with vitamins and nutrients.

During pregnancy, insufficient diets can cause women to lack key nutrients like iodine, iron, folate, calcium and zinc, leading to life-threatening conditions like anemia, pre-eclampsia and hemorrhage. For women who are pregnant or breastfeeding, UNICEF works to help source and provide iron and folic acid, calcium and other micronutrient supplements. UNICEF also promotes other healthy initiatives like nutritious diets, physical exercise and rest through nutritional counseling and support during health care visits.

Improving women’s diets and access to nutrition services – before and during pregnancy and while breastfeeding – is critical to preventing malnutrition in all its forms.

Reducing preventable maternal deaths

Severe bleeding, infections, high blood pressure during pregnancy, complications from delivery and unsafe abortions account for about 75 percent of all maternal deaths. All of these complications are preventable or treatable with timely access to high-quality health care.

For UNICEF, an important first step toward improving maternal health care is to enhance the availability and quality of data around maternal health outcomes. To that end, UNICEF and partners adopted the Every Women Every Newborn Every Where (ENEWE) Initiative — a dashboard that allows policy makers, governments and organizations to harness evidence, track progress and foster learning so that every woman has the best chance at a healthy outcome, no matter where they are.

UNICEF also works to strengthen essential maternal health care services as part of national primary health care systems and through home visits by well-trained community health workers.

Ensuring access to quality care during pregnancy and childbirth

Improving maternal survival rates requires ensuring consistent access to affordable, high-quality health care and services.

Sometimes women don't seek care when they need it, for a number of reasons. Health system failures such as poor quality of care, shortages of supplies, inadequate training for health care professionals and even mistreatment and abuse can discourage women from coming to health care facilities. In humanitarian crises, health care often becomes inaccessible. Harmful gender norms, where the rights and safety of women and girls are deprioritized, can also get in the way of essential maternal care.

UNICEF partners with governments to address the inequities and barriers in accessing affordable and quality health care to help improve maternal survival – working to ensure women receive quality prenatal and postnatal care.

In many countries, UNICEF works with local governments to set up a network of community health workers who make home visits, which is often more successful in reaching the most vulnerable women and women living in remote areas, by meeting them where they are.

Related: How UNICEF supports children's health worldwide

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