Mum's the word

By partnering with the White Ribbon Alliance, WaterAid hopes to play a part in improving the lives of mothers and their children everywhere.

Credit: WaterAid / Layton Thompson

11 March 2010

WaterAid joins fight for safe motherhood this Mother’s Day

WaterAid has announced that it will join the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood on this year's Mother’s Day in the UK to help step up the fight to improve maternal health around the world. 

Bringing a child into the world should be a moment of joy and celebration. But for women living in some of the world's poorest countries, with no safe water and sanitation, the journey through pregnancy and childbirth can be difficult and dangerous.

Millions of mums in the developing world are currently at risk of death during pregnancy or in childbirth. In fact, one woman dies every minute around the world from pregnancy related complications. Safe water and sanitation have a crucial role to play in reducing both maternal and child mortality.

According to WaterAid’s head of campaigns, Kate Norgrove: "Joining forces with the White Ribbon Alliance to raise awareness of safe motherhood makes absolute sense for WaterAid. During pregnancy and child birth, access to safe water and sanitation as well as better hygiene practices reduce the risks for mother and child."

She continued: "Whether it is in their homes or at birth centres, every day women are being forced to give birth without safe drinking water or adequate sanitation.

It is a scandalous fact that women and children are denied the protection afforded by these basic services when they are at their most vulnerable. We can’t just sit back and do nothing about this so by partnering with the White Ribbon Alliance, together we can really strive to improve the lives of mothers and their children everywhere."

As the collectors of water, women often have to spend hours each day walking and queuing to collect water. They fill their containers of around 20kg and carry their heavy load home on their head, back or hips. This is a daily task and one that doesn't stop when they are pregnant.

Director of the White Ribbon Alliance in the UK, Brigid McConville said: "I visited communities in Ethiopia with WaterAid and have seen the terrible risks that pregnant women are exposed to. Imagine being nearly nine months pregnant and having to scramble down a ravine each day to fetch water, and then giving birth having only dirty water to use. It doesn't bear thinking about yet this is the reality for millions of women across Africa and elsewhere.

WaterAid joining the White Ribbon Alliance is something to celebrate this Mother's Day as clean water and sanitation are absolutely vital to the health of mothers and newborns the world over."

For more information, to speak to a spokesperson or for high res images of WaterAid’s work including a high res version of the image that accompanies the midwife's story, please contact: annnoon@wateraid.org or call 020 7793 4790.  For media enquiries out of hours, call 07887 521552.

Notes to Editors:

About WaterAid

• WaterAid’s vision is of a world where everyone has access to safe water and sanitation. Our mission is to transform lives by improving access to safe water, hygiene and sanitation in the world’s poorest communities. We work with partners and influence decision-makers to maximise our impact. www.wateraid.org 
• At least 4,000 children die every day as a result of diseases caused by unclean water and poor sanitation.
• 884 million people in the world do not have access to safe water.This is roughly one in eight of the world's population.
• 2.5 billion people in the world do not have access to adequate sanitation, this is almost two fifths of the world's population.
• Just £15 can enable one person to access safe water, improved hygiene and sanitation.

About The White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood

The White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood is an international coalition of individuals and organisations formed to promote increased public awareness of the need to make pregnancy and childbirth safe for all women and newborns in the developing, as well as, developed countries.

With members in 146 countries and National Alliances established in 15 – Burkina Faso, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi, Nepal, Pakistan, Rwanda, South Africa, Sweden, Tanzania, Uganda, Yemen and Zambia – WRA is amplifying the voices of people suffering from the greatest burden of morbidity and mortality of complications due to pregnancy and childbirth.  www.whiteribbonalliance.org