TEHRAN – UN office in Tehran announced on Sunday that Iran has succeeded in reducing maternal mortality rate over the last 10 years.

In 1990 the rate of maternal mortality was considered 91 for every one hundred thousand pregnant women while in 2009 the rate reduced to 34, the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) officials reported on Sunday.
During a press conference, the officials noted that Iran has made a remarkable achievement in some areas, one is maternal health, but unfortunately still according to national data available, every day one Iranian woman dies because of pregnancy or birth-related complications. So, this is not acceptable not only for Iran but also for the world that in the 21st century a woman dies each day.
MDG officials stated that concerning the maternal mortality there is a clear improvement in the country and this is due to the health care policy during the last thirty years.
It is a very significant improvement. However it is not exactly the improvement that is mentioned in the Millennium Development Goals, because the objective is to reduce the rate by three quarters from 1990 to 2015. If this trend continues, hopefully the reduction of three fourths will be achieved by 2015 but efforts should be put into the strengthening of the health system too, MDG officials noted.
Unfortunately MDG number 4 and 5, which are to reduce child mortality rate and improve maternal health, couldn’t receive enough attention from the international community including the governments which have the lowest rate of improving targets, MDG officials lamented.
So MDG is working on the governments and states to work on the quality of life of mothers in the first level and children second level. If a mother is healthy, then the children, family and society will be healthy.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight international development goals that all 192 United Nations member states have agreed to achieve by the year 2015.
The goals include:
1- Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2- Achieve universal primary education
3- Promote gender equality and empower woman
4- Reduce child mortality
5- Improve maternal health
6- Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases
7- Ensure environmental sustainability
8- Develop a Global partnership for development