The Turkish Journal of Pediatrics 2011; 53: 5-10 Review The status of women and of maternal and perinatal health in Turkey Nilgün Kültürsay Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, Ege University Faculty of Medicine, İzmir, Turkey SUMMARY: Kültürsay N. The status of women and of maternal and perinatal health in Turkey. Turk J Pediatr 2011; 53: 5-10. Turkey has improved the status of women and the maternal and perinatal health statistics in the last decades. However, discrepancies between urban–rural and east-other regions continue, with some improvements. The education of girls is promoted and maternal age at marriage and at first delivery has increased. Birth control measures are increasingly used. Fertility rates decreased to 2.16 children per fertile woman. Antenatal care standards have improved, and achievement of deliveries by health care personnel and postnatal mother/ newborn care has increased to 90%. The maternal death rate decreased to 19.5 in 100,000 pregnants. However, uneducated women marry earlier and have a higher risk of dying from pregnancy-related causes. Perinatal mortality decreased to 19 in 1,000 deliveries. Neonatal mortality rate decreased to 13 in 1,000 live deliveries. Uneducated mothers living in rural areas and having more children receive less antenatal and postnatal care and are more likely to lose their newborn. The major causes of neonatal deaths are prematurity and congenital abnormalities. Key words: women’s status, maternal mortality, perinatal mortality, neonatal mortality, infant mortality. Millennium Development Goals in the world and in Turkey in 2010 World leaders gathered at the United Nations in September 2010 reviewed progress on the 15-year plan agreed upon in 2000 known as the Millennium Development Goals. These eight goals aim to end extreme poverty, hunger and disease. But with only five years remaining, several of the goals are lagging behind schedule. Two of the goals in greatest jeopardy of not being met by 2015 are Goals 4 and 5-reducing child mortality and improving maternal health. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched a $40 billion global health initiative that he says could save the lives of tens of millions of women and children worldwide. The initiative has received $40 billion in new commitments for the next five years from governments, the private sector, international organizations, and civil society 1 . This is great news for all developing countries with high maternal-perinatal and child mortality. Child survival has shown some improvement globally, but progress has been slow in maternal, perinatal and neonatal health. Of the 4 million neonatal deaths that occur worldwide each year, 99% of these occur in developing countries 2 . A similar number are stillborn, and 500000 million mothers die from pregnancy- related causes 3 . A total of 99% of all maternal deaths occur in developing countries, where 85% of the population lives 4 . Decreasing maternal and perinatal mortality is a global priority, which can be achieved with good quality antenatal care visits, safe delivery by experienced health care personnel, reachable urgent obstetrical and neonatal care, and health monitoring of the mother and newborn once in the first 24 hours and once or twice in the first week. Such a program, which can reach 90% of the society, can decrease perinatal-neonatal mortality by 70%. Simply preventing asphyxia, sepsis and hypothermia, providing better care of This work was partially presented at the Global Congress of Maternal and Infant Health, 22-26 September 2010, Barcelona, Spain.