each year some eight million of the estimated 210 million women who become pregnant, suffer life- threatening complications related to pregnancy. in 2000, an estimated 529,000 women died during pregnancy and childbirth from largely preventable causes; million infants are stillborn every year and three million infants die within the first seven days of life. globally, the maternal mortality ratio has not changed over the past decade. Ninety-nine percent of all maternal deaths occur in developing countries16 . Somalia has one of the highest maternal mortality ratios in the world. the international conference on Population and Development (icPD) held in cairo in 1994 declared.
