Dozens of Lao women are learning to be midwives as part of a national effort to bring down one of the region’s highest maternal mortality rates.

Two families lose a mother and nearly 20 babies are born dead every day, according to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), which is supporting the government initiative.

Deliveries by untrained birthing attendants, unable to solve life-threatening complications during birthing at home or help a newborn take its first breath, are partly responsible for both maternal and infant deaths, according to Monir Islam, director of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Making Pregnancies Safer department. Read more