World Health Day provides us with a timely reminder to give thought to the mothers and babies who will die today during birth, or from complications associated with the birth.

Did you know:

• 48 million women - one in three - give birth around the world every year without expert help
• 1,000 women and 2,000 babies die every day from birth complications which could be easily prevented
• 8.1 million children die before the age of five every year from preventable diseases. One in ten dies during their birth and do not even live to see the end of their first day.
• A further one million babies die every year during delivery itself; stillborn despite being alive in their mother's womb minutes or hours earlier.
• An estimated 42,000 lives could be saved a year simply if there was someone who could dry and stimulate a newborn baby to help it breathe.

The new Save the Children report, Missing Midwives, reveals that pregnant women frequently give birth at home without a midwife with only a dirty blade to cut the umbilical cord and herbs from a traditional healer to try and combat infection.

In some countries, cultural reasons mean that husbands sometimes deter their wives from seeking any help at all, leaving them to face the riskiest moment of their lives alone.

Download the Save the Children Missing Midwives report

Download the media release

Find out more about World Health Day.