A doubled investment in family planning and pregnancy-related care could reduce maternal deaths by 70 percent and newborn deaths by 50 percent worldwide, according to a report released by the Guttmacher Institute and UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.
The report, Adding It Up: The Costs and Benefits of Investing in Family Planning and Maternal and Newborn Health, documents the benefits of meeting the need for both family planning and services for mothers and newborns. According to the study, investments in family planning boost the overall effectiveness of every dollar spent on providing pregnancy-related and newborn health care. Simultaneously, investing in both family planning and maternal and newborn services, rather than just in services to mothers and newborns, could achieve the same dramatic outcomes for $1.5 billion less. Taking this action would prevent the deaths of nearly 400,000 women and 1.6 million infants every year; unintended pregnancies would decline by more than two-thirds; and unsafe abortions and resulting complications would both drop by about 75%, the report said. To read more please click here.
