 Although high-quality, accessible health care has made maternal death a rare event in developed countries, where only 1% of maternal deaths occur, these complications can often be fatal in the developing world because single most important intervention for safe motherhood is to make sure that a trained provider with midwifery skills is present at every birth, that transport is available to referral services, and that quality emergency obstetric care is available.In 2008 342,900 women died while pregnant or from childbirth worldwide.Although a high number, this was a significant drop from 1980, when 526,300 women died from the same causes.