President of Family Care International Speaks on Maternal Mortality

Last night, The New York Academy of Medicine’s Section on the History of Medicine and Public Health presented the last of its fall lectures celebrating the 75th anniversary of the publication of NYAM’s seminal report Maternal Mortality in New York City: A Study of All Puerperal Deaths 1930-1932. As a wrap up to the series of events the section invited Ann Starrs, President and co-founder of Family Care International (FCI), the first organization devoted to safe motherhood by mobilizing action to reduce the half a million maternal deaths that occur globally every year. Ms Starrs presented "Historical Perspectives on Reducing Maternal Mortality, Part III: Dying for Life: Maternal Mortality in the Developing World."

Video Ann Starr presented

In 1933 The New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM) published a

NYAM's Section on the History of Medicine and Public Health presented the last in their lectures celebrating the 7th anniversary of the publication Maternal Mortality in New York City: A Study of All Puerperal Deaths 1930-1932

groundbreaking study on maternal mortality in New York City that stressed the importance of educating both patients and clinicians and introduced a mechanism to gauge the health of a community through its health care delivery system. At the time of the mortality report, the city was experiencing a high rate of deaths per 1000 live births. For the first time, a report of this kind looked at all five boroughs and sought to understand the factors leading to maternal mortality. The results of this report, and more importantly the depth of the study, allowed a view of maternal deaths that had not been accurately recorded before. To read and download PDF files of the complete 1933 report click here.

Today, the rate of maternal mortality is used to determine the health of a society. Ms Starrs will provide a global perspective on the burden of maternal death and disability in the developing world and its devastating consequences for women, their families and their communities. She will focus on the reasons for the problem's persistence at a time when maternal mortality has been virtually eliminated in many wealthy countries, and its links to broader development issues of poverty, discrimination and public health.

Ms Starrs discussed global, national and local strategies for making motherhood safer through policy commitments and the resources needed to implement them, and through the provision of key maternal health services: prenatal care, skilled care during childbirth, emergency care when complications arise and postnatal care.

Family Care International (FCI) was established in 1987. Its founding vision was a strong commitment to improving maternal health ??? and that commitment remains central to the organization’s mission. With eight field offices, FCI now spends over two-thirds of its budget on strengthening reproductive health programs in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. FCI creates tools and resources to strengthen services in more than 100 countries.

Posted on November 26, 2008

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Contact:
Andrew J. Martin
Director of Communications
The New York Academy of Medicine
1216 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10029
212-822-7285
amartin@nyam.org

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