By Bill Ryan

SWABI, Pakistan - Tajbibi was so weak by the time she got to the maternity clinic that the 19-year-old mother "fainted every time she had a contraction," recalled Bagh-e-Gul , the midwife who saved her life in a refugee camp here on June 3.

When the Pakistani...

This Mother's Day will be no different than any other day -- every minute a woman will die in pregnancy or childbirth. Nearly all of these women will die in Africa, Asia, or in the poorest countries of Latin America. Nearly all of these deaths will have been preventable.

OROMIYA, Ethiopia -- If you were to visit 65-year-old Ayatu Nure and his family at their compound in the Oromiya region of Ethiopia, you would probably find eight of Ayatu's 12 wives harvesting banana roots for dinner, while chasing after their combined 78 children. At first glance, this unlikely family...