Making childbirth safer for women - picture story

This Mother's Day is a chance to celebrate midwives who are making pregnancy and childbirth safer so that more babies in the world’s poorest countries are born safely and grow up with the support of their mothers.

Every year more than a third of a million women and girls die in pregnancy or childbirth - the vast majority live in developing countries. In Northern Nigeria, the likelihood of a woman dying is 1 in 23 compared to 1 in 4,700 in the UK.

Secretary of State for International Development, Andrew Mitchell, has committed British aid to help save the lives of at least 50,000 women during pregnancy and childbirth and 250, 000 newborn babies by 2015.

In northern Nigeria the British government is backing an innovative community based approach to saving mothers lives by teaching women to recognise and remember the danger signs of a difficult pregnancy.

Click on the picture above for more on this story