More than half a million women die from pregnancy and childbirth each year and another 10 million suffer infections, disease, and disability as a result. A new report from UNICEF finds while the maternal mortality ratio improved by an estimated 5.4 percent between 1990 and 2005 – a reduction to 400 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births from 430 – the improvements are insufficient to achieve the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goal targets, a set of eight goals established in 2000 that range from halving poverty to halting the spread of HIV by 2015. One of the goals is to cut maternal mortality by three quarters during the timeframe. The current average rate of reduction in the maternal mortality rates is less than 1 percent, far short of the 5.5 percent a year needed between 1990 and 2015. Not surprisingly, the mortality rate is uneven from country to country and far worse in the developing world. Ireland had the lowest rate in the world with just 1 in 47,600 lifetime risk of dying during pregnancy or from a birth-related cause, whereas women in Niger face a 1 in 7 lifetime risk.