When a baby is born in the UK, a qualified midwife is almost always there. There is clean water, medicines, and a phone to call for help. For most mothers in Britain, giving birth is one of the most extraordinary days of their lives — scary, yes, but safe.
Now imagine giving birth in a rural village in Sierra Leone, South Sudan, or Bangladesh. Too often, there is no skilled midwife. No ambulance. No clean equipment. Just hope – and fear.
Every two minutes, a woman dies from causes related to pregnancy or childbirth. Every year, 2.3 million newborn babies do not survive their first month of life. Almost all of these deaths happen in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). Almost all of them are preventable.
The difference between life and death? A skilled midwife.
We know what works. When a trained and equipped health worker is present at birth and in those critical first days of life, mothers and babies survive. It is that simple, and that urgent.
Yet the world faces a staggering shortage of midwives. According to the State of the World's Midwifery report, the world needs around 900,000 more midwives to meet the needs of women and newborns — and this gap is felt most severely at the primary care and community level, in the clinics, health posts, and villages where most births actually happen.
In the poorest parts of the world, the health worker who attends a birth may be hours away, undertrained, and working without basic supplies. In some countries, fewer than half of all births are attended by a skilled professional. In the most fragile and conflict-affected settings, that figure is even lower.
Primary health care is the front line — and it needs investment.
The answer is not to build more hospitals in big towns and cities. It is to bring care closer to communities.
Primary health care — the local clinic, the community health worker, the village midwife — is where most maternal and newborn deaths can be prevented. Antenatal check-ups that spot complications early. Skilled birth attendants who can manage emergencies. Postnatal visits in those dangerous first days when infections can take hold and breastfeeding must be established.
Investing in primary health care is not just the right thing to do — it is the smartest. Studies show that every $1 invested in primary health care generates returns of up to $16 in economic productivity. Healthy mothers raise healthy children. Healthy children go to school, learn, and grow up to build their communities.
This is the foundation of Universal Health Coverage — the global commitment that every person, everywhere, should be able to access the health care they need without facing financial ruin. The world set 2030 as the deadline to achieve it. We are running out of time.
UK aid saves lives. The Global Financing Facility is proof.
One of the most powerful tools in the global fight to end preventable maternal and newborn deaths is the Global Financing Facility (GFF) — and the UK is one of its key supporters.
The GFF works by helping the world's poorest countries strengthen their own health systems from the ground up. It backs governments to prioritise maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health in their national plans and budgets — and then mobilises international and domestic financing to make those plans a reality.
The results are real. In countries supported by the GFF, more women receive antenatal care. More births are attended by skilled health workers. More newborns survive their first dangerous hours, and their mothers are far more likely to survive as well. UK aid, channelled through the GFF, is directly responsible for saving thousands of lives.
This year, the GFF needs to raise a further $1billion to continue funding this lifesaving work. This is a major opportunity for donors, including the UK Government, to recommit and scale up funding - at a critical time when rising inflation in LMIC has driven up costs of medicines, staff salaries and other essentials, restricting availability of these lifesaving services.
A strong uplift this year, building on past commitments, would send a powerful signal to world leaders: that Britain stands with the world's mothers and children, even in tough economic times at home, ensuring that progress made in recent years is not lost amid rising prices and tightening budgets.
A tale of two mothers.
Think of two mothers. One in Manchester. One in Malawi.
Both carry the same hopes. Both love their unborn child unconditionally. Both want to hold a healthy baby and watch them grow.
But the mother in Manchester will be supported by a skilled midwife, monitored throughout her pregnancy, and treated instantly if anything goes wrong. The mother in Malawi may walk hours to a clinic that has no midwife on duty, no running water, and no medicines to manage the haemorrhage that could kill her.
It doesn't have to be this way. With investment we can ensure that more women like Emily (pictured above with her newborn baby Blessing) give birth in a health facility with a qualified midwife to help them and their babies if they experience complications.
This Mother's Day, demand better — for every mother.
Women and children’s rights do not stop at borders. The right to healthcare. The right to a safe birth. The right to survive. These are not privileges for wealthy nations — they are universal rights, enshrined in international law.
As the UK Government decides how to spend its overseas development budget this year, we are calling on decision-makers to invest in the one thing that can change everything: essential health care, delivered by skilled midwives and community health workers, reaching every mother and every newborn in every corner of the world.
On Mother's Day, celebrate the mums in your life. And then take a moment to stand up for the mums who have no one standing up for them.
Because every mother deserves to survive the day she gives life. And every baby deserves a safe start.
