For maternal mortality progress has been even more elusive. Despite 15 years of the Safe Motherhood Initiative, overall levels of maternal mortality are generally thought to have remained unchanged, with the latest estimate of deaths standing at approximately 530,000 per year (WHO, UNICEF et al. 2003). While a handful of countries have indeed experienced remarkable drops in maternal mortality ratio (an indicator of the safety of childbirth and pregnancy), in the great majority of high mortality countries, there has been little change. Indeed, in some countries, where levels of HIV and malaria.
