Despite modest progress, especially in Asia, the global maternal mortality toll remains stable due to a lack of financial resources and political will, says the United National Children’s Fund (UNICEF), as reported by Reuters.  In their report "Progress for Children:  A Report Card on Maternal Mortality," released Friday, Sept. 19, UNICEF said that women often bleed to death because no emergency obstetrical care is available.  The riskiest place to give birth is Niger, where the risk of a woman dying in pregnancy or childbirth is 1 in 7, closely followed by Sierra Leone, where the risk is 1 in 8.  But other countries such as Sri Lanka and Mozambique have succeeded in lowering maternal mortality rates through a combination of making family planning available, training birth attendants, providing emergency obstetrical care, and providing post-natal care.  Although HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria receive the lion’s share of attention (and funding) in the developing world, maternal and child mortality do not yet receive the attention that the scale of the problem deserves.