The World Health Report : Make Every Mother and Child Count

Each year, almost 11 million children under five years of age die from largely preventable causes, whilst about half a million women die in pregnancy, childbirth or soon after.

This year's report focuses on maternal, newborn and child health issues as an integral part of progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals targets and promoting poverty reduction.

It identifies exclusion as a key feature of inequity as well as a barrier to progress, and sets out strategies required to ensure universal access to health care and social health insurance systems for every mother and child, through a continuum that extends from pregnancy through childbirth, the neonatal period and childhood.