Niger has the highest lifetime risk of maternal mortality of any country in the world, 1 in 7. The comparable risk in the developed world is 1 in 8,000. Since 1990, the base year for the Millennium Development Goals, an estimated 10 million women have died from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth, and some 4 million newborns have died each year within the first 28 days of life. Advances in maternal and neonatal health have not matched those of child survival, which registered a 27 per cent reduction in the global under-five mortality rate between 1990 and 2007.

The State of the World's Children 2009 focuses on maternal and neonatal health and identifies the
interventions and actions that must be scaled up to save lives.