BBC NEWS | INDEPTH | MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS

Target: Reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality rate.

Each year an estimated 500,000 women die during childbirth and millions of others suffer serious injury or complications. Children whose mothers die during childbirth are more likely to suffer poverty and exploitation.

Some countries have recorded an improvement, but the UN warns that maternal death rates will not decrease much further without a renewed drive to provide better resources and more trained medical staff in developing countries.

Another aim is to provide reproductive healthcare to the estimated 200 million women worldwide who have no access to safe contraception.

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