A landmark global conference in London this October aims to halt the needless deaths of 10 million women and girls who die in each generation during pregnancy and childbirth, and four million newborn babies who die every year. These tragic deaths are a major contributor to poverty around the world, and can be easily prevented with effective, low-cost investments.

At the Women Deliver conference, more than 2,000 participants will look at new and proven ways to save these lives. In addition to looking at strategies to change the ways how health information and services are provided and funded, the conference will tackle other key issues, including poverty reduction, women's human rights, and economic development.

Delegates from more than 75 countries will include cabinet ministers, heads of United Nations and other multilateral agencies, senior government officials, health professionals, researchers, economists, and reproductive health advocates. See www.womendeliver.org for details.

"Every minute of every day a woman dies needlessly during pregnancy and childbirth," said conference Honorary Chair Mary Robinson, President of Realizing Rights and former President of Ireland. "That's ten million women in every generation. Most of these deaths are in the developing world, and most are preventable."

Huge disparities exist between rich and poor countries and between the rich and poor in all countries. One in six women will die from pregnancy-related causes in Afghanistan, one in 2,500 in the United States and one in 29,800 in Sweden, according to UN statistics from 2000. An updated country scorecard will be released just before the opening of the Women Deliver conference in October.

Invest in Women: It Pays!

Deliberations at Women Deliver will outline new ways that investing in women will make pregnancy safer and enable women to reach their fullest potential.

"The birth of a child should be a happy moment in a mother's life - not her last moment," said Jill Sheffield, President of Family Care International, the conference organizing partner. "The Women Deliver conference is about safe deliveries and healthy babies and about women delivering for other women on related strategies on human rights, girls' education, financial resources, access to reproductive health, political will and gender equality," Sheffield added.

Serious investment in women's health and rights enables women to deliver - not just the next generation, but also everything development communities work to achieve: economic progress, rising rates of literacy and productivity, better health, and well-being for families, communities and nations.

Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund and a speaker at Women Deliver, said the conference "will call attention to a tragedy that is not often registered, and will push all concerned to take unified action."