The United Nations Millennium Declaration, signed by 189 heads of state in 2000, committed world leaders to achieving Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5, improving maternal health (with targets of reducing the maternal mortality ratio—the number of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births—by three-quarters before 2015, and achieving universal access to reproductive health). Although more than half of countries are reducing maternal mortality at an accelerated pace, few are on track to achieve the goal by 2015. b An estimated 273,500 maternal deaths occurred worldwide in 2011, almost all in developing countries, down from 409,100 maternal deaths in 1990. 5 Across.
