News outlets report on efforts to reduce maternal and newborn mortality as the deadline for the Millennium Development Goals draws closer.

Bloomberg News: Most Dangerous Day of Life Is Birth as Million Babies Die
“…Birth remains a stubbornly deadly affair in [Mozambique] and 74 other developing nations, eroding their human capital and keeping billions of people entrapped in a cycle of poverty that a new United Nations-backed plan says can be reversed with spending just over $1 a person more on health…” (Gale, 8/18).

The Guardian: Maternal mortality? It’s just poor African and Asian women dying
“…Although the global maternal mortality ratio has dropped by 45 percent between 1990 and 2013, which equates to a decline in deaths per 100,000 live births from 380 to 210, the figures still fall significantly short of the 2015 target…” (Ford, 8/18).