I News India - Empowering Ideas!

If you would ever ask a woman to list down the most happiest and memorable days of her life, she would definitely mention the day she became a mother. This is one day which is close to every woman’s heart. But what a recent UN report suggests is a complete shame for India. It stated that an estimated 80,000 pregnant women and new mothers die each year in India from preventable causes, including hemorrhage, eclampsia, sepsis and anemia, making it an average of 301 deaths for every 100,000 live births annually.

And this is just what the official records say. There are numerous maternal deaths which go unnoticed or not included in these records as they occur at homes or before an expectant mother reaches a medical facility for help. The actual numbers could be much higher.

Well, there are various reasons behind these maternal deaths, the most prominent one being the lack of facilities and awareness. To find out more reasons, UNICEF has launched the maternal and parental death enquiry and response (MAPEDIR). It has already come across 1600 cases across 6 Indian states to identify medical and social reasons behind these deaths.

The problem is not only with India. Recently UNICEF found out that 5, 00,000 women across the globe die unnecessarily due to complications during pregnancy and child birth.

Lack of awareness has been a major cause of concern in this context. Most women in rural areas still prefer delivering at homes rather than seeking proper medical help. When the cases are critical, it results in maternal deaths due to lack of medical attention. So a lot of work needs to be done in this aspect. Also women themselves should try to take an initiative and help themselves in ensuring a safe delivery.

Tags: anemia, Awareness, eclampsia, hemorrhage, India, Mapedir, Mother, New Mothers, Pregnant Women, sepsis, Shame, UN Rrports, Unicef, Woman, Women

The recent Forbes report awarded the tag of world’s most powerful woman of the year 2008 to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. It is the third straight year when Merkel topped the Forbes magazine list of top 100 women based on their career, economic impact and media coverage.

Sheila Bair, who chairs the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corp that insures bank deposits, debuts at No. 2 due to her increased prominence amid a stumbling US economy. The other ladies in top 10 included the chief executives of PepsiCo, WellPoint, Anglo American, Kraft Foods, Temasek Holdings, Areva, Xerox and Condoleezza Rice.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi is ranked No. 21 while Democratic US senator and former presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton dropped three spots to No. 28 but gained the most media attention of any woman on the list this year.

“Certainly she had been the Democratic nominee that probably would have catapulted her higher. She’s still an incredibly powerful force, she’s way more powerful than any other female senator.” said Forbes’ associate editor Chana Schoenberger.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is the only other government official in the top 10, although she dropped three spots from last year to No. 7 as the Bush administration prepares to leave office in January after the US election in November.

According to Forbes report, 45 per cent of the women are based outside the United States.

There are 54 business executives and 23 politicians on the list, with media personalities and heads of non-profit organizations rounding out the top 100.

Gail Kelly, head of Australian bank Westpac, lands at No. 11 as Westpac is making a $15.6 billion takeover of St George Bank in Australia’s biggest-ever bank deal.

French Minister for Economy, Finance and Employment Christine Lagarde is at No. 14

While talking about the enlisted women in the interview, Chana Schoenberger said, “It’s inspiring to look at what some of these women have done and to listen to some of their life stories.”

One third of the women are new to the list, including Argentina’s first popularly elected president Cristina Fernandez and Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, chief executive of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. While the women who drop off the list this year included Zoe Cruz, former president of Morgan Stanley, Patricia Russo, former head of Alcatel Lucent and Meg Whitman, who stepped down as eBay’s chief executive.

“A lot of the women who dropped off the list this year were for job-related reasons,” Schoenberger said.

Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the US House of Representatives, ranked at No. 35 while talk show host Oprah Winfrey nabbed No. 36. Yahoo President Susan Decker is No. 50 and Queen Rania of Jordan is No. 96.

For complete details visit www.Forbes.com/women.

Tags: Angela Merkel, Anglo American, Areva, Condoleezza Rice, Forbes, Forbes Report, Hillary Clinton, Kraft Foods, PepsiCo, Powerful Women, Sheila Bair, Sonia Gandhi, Temasek Holdings, WellPoint, Woman, Women, World, Xerox