By Xinhua
Geneva : The World Health Organization (WHO) Thursday launched a new initiative to improve the availability and use of safe blood to save the lives of women during and after childbirth.
The global initiative on "Safe Blood for Safe Motherhood" was launched on the occasion of World Blood Donor Day.
The initiative "aims to improve access to safe blood to manage pregnancy-related complications as part of a comprehensive approach to maternal care," the UN agency said in a statement.
"This includes good antenatal care, prevention and timely treatment of anaemia, assessment of the need for transfusion and safe blood transfusion given only when really required," the statement said.
WHO will strengthen the capacity of blood banks and district hospitals for improving maternal health through the provision of technical support in the areas of voluntary blood donation, safe blood collection, quality assured testing and best clinical practices.
It will also train clinicians, nurses, technicians and other key health personnel at district level facilities through its regional networks across the world.
According to WHO data, the lack of access to safe blood for women reflects the general situation in developing countries. Developing countries are home to more than 80 percent of the world' s population, yet they currently represent only 45 percent of the global blood supply.
"Globally, more than 500,000 women die each year during pregnancy, childbirth or in the postpartum period (time following childbirth) — 99 percent of them in the developing world," WHO said in the statement.
Severe bleeding during childbirth causes 25 percent of those deaths making it the most common cause of maternal mortality, it added.
As pregnant women are one of the main groups of patients requiring blood transfusion in developing countries, together with children they are particularly vulnerable to blood shortages and to HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C infections through unsafe blood.
"If current trends continue, the world will fail to meet target five of the Millennium Development Goals to reduce maternal mortality," said WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan.
"We must do everything we can to improve the chances of women during and after childbirth," she said.