MaterCare International seeks support for maternal rights charter

(August 10, 2012) An international Catholic organization of obstetricians and gynaecologists who care for mothers and their babies has drafted a "Charter of Maternal Rights" it hopes will be adopted by leaders and decision makers around the world to help stem the high number of maternal deaths. The group, MaterCare International (MCI) drafted the charter with the goal of changing the neglect that mothers in much of the world experience, said Dr. Robert Walley, executive director of the organization. He said paying attention to the needs of mothers and their children has "hardly been a high priority with anybody." The preamble to the charter claims it draws its substance from statistics as well sources including the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the documents of the Second Vatican Council, and focuses on the human rights of mothers, the delivery of maternal health care and necessary actions by obstetricians and midwives to provide adequate health care. According to MaterCare International the causes of maternal deaths are readily preventable and can be successfully treated at comparable low cost," the charter reads. It says that proper measures, availability of skilled personnel at the time of birth and prompt emergency obstetrical care if things go wrong may save the lives of 90 percent of the mothers.