Midwives in Scotland will today lead calls for international action to improve maternity care across the developing world amid warnings that efforts have so far failed to reduce the number of women who die in childbirth.

Midwives in Scotland will today lead calls for international action to improve maternity care across the developing world amid warnings that efforts have so far failed to reduce the number of women who die in childbirth.

More than 500,000 women, 99% of whom live in developing countries, die every year after suffering complications in pregnancy or labour and as many as one in seven women in some countries will die from pregnancy-related causes.

The United Nations has a target to reduce maternal mortality by 75% between 1990 and 2015 but the Royal College of Midwives warns that the pledge, Millennium Development Goal 5, is far from being met.

Gillian Smith, Director of the Royal College of Midwives UK Board for Scotland, said it was "unbelievable" that one woman dies while pregnant or giving birth every minute of every day.

"Millennium Development Goal 5 is nowhere near to even being touched," she said. "In 2008 the risk continued unabated."

The target is among eight Millennium Development Goals agreed by 189 countries to reduce poverty, promote gender equality, halt the spread of HIV/Aids and achieve universal primary education by 2015.

However, UN figures show that maternal mortality fell by less than 1% each year between 1990 and 2005. An annual drop of 5.5% is needed to achieve Goal 5.

It is estimated that there is a shortage of around 350,000 midwives worldwide and the UN said that more training was also needed to improve maternity care.

Anne Duffy, a labour ward sister at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley, Renfrewshire, and member of the Royal College of Midwives, said: "We want to ensure that pregnancy and childbirth is safe in every country around the world.

"These deaths are happening simply because women lack access to skilled birth attendants or basic medical care.

"We take medical care for granted. Women in the Scotland have access to midwives and if things go wrong and they become high-risk then they can have care transferred to an obstetrician. We are so lucky.

"A lot of these societies are male-dominated societies where women are not allowed to participate in healthcare unless they get consent from a male relative. We need education and awareness."

The Scottish Government has previously supported efforts to provide training in emergency obstetrics to staff in Malawi, sending midwives to the African country to pass on their knowledge and skills to local birth attendants.

Freedom From Fistula, the charity established by entrepreneur Ann Gloag, has also trained traditional birth attendants in countries such as Liberia and Sierra Leone to help minimise the risk of women suffering from the severe condition obstetric fistula, which is caused by obstructed childbirth.

The Royal College of Midwives is holding a candlelit vigil at Stirling Royal Infirmary today to mark International Day of the Midwife, and a debate on the issue will be held in the Scottish Parliament tomorrow.

Ms Smith said: "If a woman has one-to-one care from midwives they have less need for intervention. We are fortunate in our country.

"As developed countries we should be helping developing countries, and raising awareness is key."

The White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood, an international group of organisations working to make pregnancy and childbirth safer, is supporting the midwives' campaign.

Theresa Shaver, President and Executive Director of the White Ribbon Alliance, said: "Only the care of skilled health workers, including midwives, will save the lives of the hundreds of thousands of women and newborns who die for lack of quality healthcare taken for granted by all but the world's poorest and most vulnerable women.

"Governments must prioritise investments in health systems as key, not only to saving mothers and newborns, but to achievement of the other Millennium Development Goals to break the cycle of poverty and empower women."