“I came so that they could have life—indeed, so that they could live to the fullest” (John 10:10).
Mothers are important figures in our biblical tradition. Women like Eve, Hagar, Sarah, Elizabeth, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, are remembered for their role as bearers of new life. But within the sacred texts, stories also tell of maternal tragedy and loss. Both Rachel (Genesis 35:16–20) and the wife of Phinehas (1 Samuel 4:19–20) died after prolonged and difficult labors.
Tragically, stories of maternal death are ordinary today. For many women, especially those living in poverty and in developing countries, giving birth is dangerous and life-threatening. Worldwide maternal mortality is a leading cause of death for women of child-bearing age.
According to the World Health Organization, over 300,000 women die each year—roughly 830 every day—from pregnancy-or childbirth-related complications. The main causes of maternal mortality include infection, hemorrhaging, high blood pressure, and obstructed labor. Many of these deaths are preventable.
Tragically, with regard to maternal care, survival is often a daily struggle for women who lack access to basic services that they need. God calls us to respond to the suffering around us, to love our neighbors throughout the world. As followers of Christ, we are members of the same body. We must care for everyone—especially women who are already navigating systems of oppression and often risking their lives during and following pregnancy and birth.
The global community is taking steps to address the tragedy of maternal mortality. Members of the United Nations established in 2015 the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that set targets for a better, more sustainable future for all. Every SDG is an essential part of saving mothers’ and babies’ lives and SDG 3 specifically includes the target of reducing global mortality to less than 70 per 100,000 live births by 2030. Maternal deaths exist in all countries. According to the World Bank, maternal mortality rates range from 1,360 deaths per 100,000 live births in Sierra Leone to 114 deaths per 100,000 live births in the Philippines to 5 deaths per 100,000 live births in Norway. Most countries’ maternal death rates are decreasing with the exception of thirteen countries including North Korea and the United States.
Maternal mortality rates often vary within each country based on a number of factors. In the United States, for example, the Center for Disease Control reports that black women are more than twice as likely to die as a result of pregnancy than white women. Public health experts attribute two primary factors to this racial disparity in maternal deaths: implicit bias within the medical system and weathering that occurs over the lifespan of black women whose bodies are worn down more quickly from the daily impact of racism and sexism.
Maternal mortality is a moral tragedy and the church must address the health, economic, and cultural barriers that contribute to maternal deaths.
Health Barriers
All over the world, many women of child-bearing age lack access to reproductive health services such as prenatal care and postnatal care, including information and resources to space and time pregnancies. This is particularly dangerous for pregnant women. With no hospital or clinic nearby, women customarily give birth at home in unsanitary conditions. This puts both the woman and her baby at risk of infection. If a woman experiences a life-threatening complication while in labor at home, she may not be able to reach emergency care in time. Situations like these could be prevented if women had access to health information and medical care that are essential to them.
Unintended pregnancy is also a health concern. Globally, more than 200 million women would like to avoid or delay pregnancy, but they lack access to modern contraceptive services. This results in millions of unintended pregnancies every year. Supply shortages, lack of education, misinformation, and cultural barriers all contribute to this unmet need. Without access to contraceptives, women are unable to manage the timing and birth spacing of their children. This is of particular concern to women who have given birth within the past two years and those who are HIV-positive: The former’s bodies may not have fully recovered, and the latter’s immune system is compromised.
Birth spacing is a key health intervention for reducing both maternal and infant mortality. When a woman spaces her pregnancies at least three years apart, she is more likely to have a healthy delivery, and her children are more likely to survive infancy. If a woman becomes pregnant too soon after giving birth, her body does not have time to recover and her risk for complications increases. To be able to space her pregnancies in the healthiest manner, a woman must have access to safe, modern family-planning services.
Providing family-planning services to a woman is inexpensive. The direct and indirect benefits, however, of women planning their families are priceless and countless: smaller family size, better health for both children and mother, less economic burden on the family, and women’s continued economic contribution to the greater community. By meeting all the unmet need for family planning, maternal mortality rates would drop by a third, and the need for abortion would be reduced significantly. Furthermore, the use of condoms reduces the risk of infection for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases or infections. In particular, access to female condoms is crucial for empowering women to initiate their own protection against these infections.
Economic Barriers
Economic realities and policies can create additional barriers to maternal health. Lack of economic opportunities and quality education as well as the lack of quality, affordable health insurance, contraception, and feminine products can all contribute to declines in maternal health.
Women need access to affordable and equitable health care programs to thrive economically and to support their families. Health insurance and access to contraception as well as government policies and laws related to reproductive health can support or impede the ability of women to plan and space their pregnancies.
As a church we must advocate—speaking out and standing with women—to eradicate economic barriers that block access for women to affordable, quality, and equitable health care.
Cultural Barriers
As people of God we are created uniquely and we have cultural differences that make us diverse. In some areas of the world, having a large family is a sign of honor or having many children is a showcase of a man’s virility. There are men who expect their wives to bear many children but may not consider or support birth spacing or family planning.
The expectation of giving birth to many children is sometimes based on the traditions and norms of a community. There are societal and familial pressures that can undermine some women’s personal desires regarding her fertility and can adversely affect her health or decision to space and time pregnancies. Marrying age also affects maternal health. Child marriage is prevalent in many cultures. Girls marry and begin giving birth in early adolescence. If these young females are not practicing family planning, they could have multiple children before they are physiologically and emotionally mature. Young women not fully developed physically at the time of marriage are at great risk for complications such as obstetric fistula, a tragic childbirth injury caused by prolonged, obstructed labor without access to timely, high-quality medical treatment. This can leave women leaking urine, feces, or both and often leads to chronic medical problems, depression, social isolation, and deepening poverty.
The Call
Women are crying out for not only their own survival but also the survival of their families and communities. They deserve access to services and care that empower their personal and economic decision-making and development. As a global church, we are called to eradicate systems of oppression and marginalization that inhibit women’s well-being.
We therefore call upon all United Methodists to:
- Address the root causes of maternal deaths in local contexts, which could include addressing access to health services, racism, or child marriage.
- Support local health initiatives that expand access to information and services for women’s health and projects around the world that include maternal health and family planning;
- Advocate with policy makers at all levels to increase access to maternal health and family-planning services; and
- Create projects in local churches and annual conferences that educate and advocate for women to have access to quality and affordable healthcare programs.
ADOPTED 2012
REVISED AND READOPTED 2024
RESOLUTION #3203, 2012, 2016 BOOK OF RESOLUTIONS
See Social Principles, ¶ 163, Basic Rights and Freedoms, A.
