National Safe Motherhood Day

National Safe Motherhood Day is celebrated in India on April 11th every year. It is celebrated to raise awareness about the risks that women face during pregnancy and childbirth. The day also commemorates the birthday of Kasturba Gandhi.

Safe motherhood

Safe motherhood means ensuring that all women have access to the information and services they need to go safely through pregnancy and childbirth. This includes:

• Education on safe motherhood
• Prenatal care and counseling
• Postnatal care
• Postabortion care
• Family planning
• Obstetric and newborn care

National Safe Motherhood Day

APRIL-11

Facts about Maternal Mortality-WHO

Approximately 830 women die every day from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth.

We can’t ignore the fact that skilled care before, during and after childbirth can save the lives of women and newborn babies.

Maternal mortality worldwide dropped by about 44% between 1990 and 2015.

As part of the Sustainable Development Goals between 2016 and 2030, the target is to reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100000 live births.

India is the first country in the world to have officially declared a National Safe Motherhood Day.

National Safe Motherhood Day Quotes

“A mother’s arms are
made of tenderness and
children sleep
soundly in them.”
— Victor Hugo.

“A mother is she
who can take the place
of all others but
whose place no one else
can take.”
— Cardinal Mermillod.

Every mother has a right to
better care during pregnancy,
childbirth, and postnatal period.
Let’s pledge to make that a reality on
National Safe
Motherhood Day

“No language
can express
the power and
beauty and
heroism of
a mother’s
love.”
Edwin Chapin

“Mothers have often been seen as means and not
ends. Health services have been targeted to
mothers to help them to produce healthy babies,
forgetting that there is a woman in the mother,
who also has a right to health and survival.
Society has an obligation to fulfil a woman’s right
to life and health, when she is risking death to
give us life.”

Professor Mahmoud F. Fathalla
FIGO Past President, 1994-1997

Why is National Safe Motherhood Day celebrated?

Every year on April 11, National Safe Motherhood Day is observed in India to raise awareness about the importance of proper healthcare and maternity services for expectant mothers.

What is the importance of safe motherhood?

Safe motherhood means ensuring that all women have access to the information and services they need to go safely through pregnancy and childbirth. It includes: Education on safe motherhood. Prenatal care (care during pregnancy) and counseling with focus on high risk pregnancies.