Goal 5 of the Millennium Development Goals is to improve maternal health, and this translates into a target of reducing the maternal mortality ratio by three quarters7 between 1990 and 2015. The available estimates indicate that this ratio has held steady at about 190 deaths per 100,000 births in Latin America and the Caribbean during the past decade. Because the total number of births has not changed significantly since then, the number of women dying from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth in the region is estimated to have remained at about 22,000 a year. The impairment of maternal health has many other implications, however, apart from mortality; the World Health Organization has drawn attention to the high incidence of morbidity and disabilities resulting from inadequate monitoring and care during pregnancy and childbirth, including infertility and sexually transmitted diseases.

Information from: The Millennium Development Goals: a Latin American and Caribbean perspective (UN, 2005)

ECLAC is working in the translation of the Regional Progress report and Summary Table. At the moment the Spanish version is available