National Safe Motherhood Day is observed on April 11th every year. It is an initiative of the White Ribbon Alliance India to ensure that women should get adequate care during pregnancy and childbirth and should be given proper postnatal care. The White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood, India (WRA India) was initiated when an NGO, Centre for Catalyzing Change, brought many individuals and organizations together to propagate the safe motherhood movement in India.

In 2003, WRAI formed an alliance of 1800 organizations to advocate safe motherhood and April 11 was declared as National Safe Motherhood Day. April 11 is also the birth anniversary of Kasturba Gandhi.

The goal of the WRAI is to educate women and help them realize their rights to be safe and healthy before, during and after childbirth. It helps in protecting the lives of women and newborns by working towards improved maternal health facilities, better policies of maternal care, more use of technology and training and inspiring actions at various levels.

On this day, activities and campaigns are organized throughout the country to increase awareness that every woman has the right to live and survive pregnancy and childbirth. This day brings together members and NGOs who share resources and expertise between them.

Every year 44,000 women die during pregnancy due to lack of proper facilities and ignorance. Therefore, education is of utmost importance as the right knowledge will induce women to take care of themselves. This should also be followed by proper nutrition during pregnancy and breastfeeding of the newborn.

When a woman dies, it is not just the loss of the newborn, but also a personal loss to the family as well as the nation which loses out on her contributions to social and economic development. There are ways to prevent maternal deaths, most important being  ensuring delivery by qualified and skilled birth attendant. Steps should be taken to beat anemia which is a common problem among young girls and women in India. 

Women should be educated about nutrition during pregnancy, importance of breastfeeding, safe methods of family planning. Early detection and management of complications during birth will go a long way in saving the lives of mothers as well as newborns. Child marriages should be abolished.
 

The pillars of Safe Motherhood are 

·         Family planning

·         Antenatal care

·         Obstetric care - clean and safe delivery

·         Prenatal care

·         Postnatal care


Over the years, India has been successful in lowering the maternal mortality rates with the alliance of the NGOs under WRAI and in collaboration with worldwide organizations like WHO, UNICEF and UNFPA. The rate of maternal deaths in India has declined considerably and is  much better than the global rate of decline, thanks to the efforts of the organizations.