Investing in midwives is a cost-effective and sustainable strategy to improve maternal and newborn health and well-being and reduce mortality. There is ample evidence to show that care provided by midwives is women centric, significantly advances maternal and newborn health outcomes, strengthens health systems, and helps build future healthier generations.

The Midwifery Accelerator: Expanding Quality Care for Women and Newborns —developed in consultation with governments, global experts, UN agencies, civil society, and providers—calls on governments, funders and other stakeholders to invest in midwifery care to save and transform the lives of women and their newborns around the world.

Download the Midwifery Accelerator

See also:

• The Global Position Paper on Transitioning to Midwifery Models of Care.
• The Midwifery Implementation Guidance 

This report presents internationally comparable global-, regional- and country-level estimates and trends for maternal mortality between 2000 and 2023. A total of 195 countries and territories met the criteria to be included the data analyses and in the results presented in this report. This is the second report to present estimates and trends for maternal mortality for years that fall within the SDG reporting period, covering the first eight years of the 15-year period, from the start of 2016 until the end of 2023.