Family planning is planning to save lives reports Merlin

In the UK family planning is a lifestyle choice but in many of the countries where global health charity Merlin works, this lack of choice can prove fatal.

As we approach the London Summit on Family Planning, it is estimated that every year 287,000 women and girls die from complications in pregnancy and/or childbirth. The vast majority of these deaths occur where poverty, conflict and natural disaster make everyday life a challenge.

This is why Merlin is determined to make it possible for more women to choose when to have children and how many.

Merlin is already helping hundreds of thousands of women in 16 countries make this choice which could literally save their lives. Merlin?s firm pledge is to give 1.5m additional women access to family planning by 2015.

Merlin?s chief executive, Carolyn Miller said: ?A pregnancy should be a cause for joy, not a potential death sentence. We will save lives by putting family planning at the forefront of our health programmes.

?When the public see us saving lives wrecked by disaster and disease they understand what we are doing. But we want people to realise that lives lost through pregnancy are a disaster too and one that we can prevent.

?Merlin is making great progress in giving women choice about having children. For instance, in Pakistan we are ahead of targets with more women taking up family planning than we expected. It is clear that they want to take control of their health, their incomes and their way they live their lives.?

Girls who have frequent pregnancies from being married in their early teens and women whose bodies are weakened through continuous childbearing are most at risk from dying as a result of becoming pregnant.

The simplest way to prevent these deaths is to prevent the pregnancy. There are 80m unintended pregnancies globally every year with many of these occurring where there is little or no access to family planning.

Merlin is striving to save the lives of women in some of the worlds? toughest countries by helping them have the choice about having children that we take for granted.

The right to decide when and if she becomes pregnant with an informed choice of modern methods of contraception empowers women and underpins their right to health. But it is a right that has long been neglected and under-resourced. The London Summit on Family Planning is welcome if it results in lasting commitments to transform the lives of women and girls worldwide.

Support the work of Merlin with an ongoing donation from pay.

Source: http://www.workplacegiving.co.uk/news-and-press-archive/family-planning-is-planning-to-save-lives-reports-merlin/

kevin systrom amanda bynes fibonacci sequence maryland lottery grand jury ozzie guillen fidel castro darvish