The Fight for Women's Lives

Wendi Murdoch, Queen Rania Al Abdullah, and Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi spoke out this week against one of the worst problems in the developing world: the number of women who die in childbirth.

With the eyes of the world on New York for the 64th General Assembly of the United Nations, we welcomed more than 300 of the world's most influential women for dinner Wednesday night. The topic of conversation was an issue that needs to be at the top of every world leader's agenda—maternal mortality.

Click Image Below to View Gallery of the Ultimate Power Women's Dinner

Each year, more than a half million women lose their lives from complications arising before, during, or after childbirth. Almost all of these deaths occur in the developing world, and almost all of them are preventable.

Behind these statistics are the stories of promising lives cut short and of the motherless children left behind. For the women who joined us Wednesday night and for all others around the globe, maternal mortality is not just an abstract issue—it’s a personal one. And in the stories that follow, we would like to share our personal perspectives.

Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah

Last year, 60 million women around the world gave birth without professional care.

More than half a million of them died.

Think, for a moment, about that number. One woman. Every minute. Every day.

They are women like Sharifa, just 23, from Afghanistan, whose delivery was obstructed, who screamed in pain as her relatives tied her to a ladder, and carried her for hours to a clinic—only to be told to go to hospital 200 kilometers away. Her husband had to rent a car and drive along roads so dirty and pitted that she choked on dust and fainted. When she was resuscitated, she was told that her baby was dead, and she wouldn't have any more children.

But at least Sharifa is still alive.

Aishat, from Nigeria, was not so lucky. She had her first child at just 16. By 33, she was pregnant for the ninth time, in a mission to deliver a prized male child. Following 36 hours of labor, she bled to death, at home.

It doesn't have to be this way. Women don't have to keep dying like this. And little girls don't have to grow up wondering if their lives will end when they give birth.

The hard work of making this a reality doesn't start in contractions, or even conception, it starts in the classroom. If we can get girls into quality schools, they can become part of the solution.