Context:

Maternal and newborn mortality rates are sensitive indicators of overall health care system performance and can be used to monitor general health gains in the population. However, these deaths pose one of the most serious challenges to achieve the MDG 5 by 2015, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa where 1 out of 16 women is at risk of dying from obstetrical causes compared to 1 woman out of 4000 in high income countries (and nearly one out of 100 in countries in the Middle East and North Africa).

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