Ireland's maternal mortality rates are among the best in the world, but in developing countries a woman has between a one in ten and a one in 20 chance of dying from a condition associated with pregnancy or childbirth. Between 500,000 and 700,000 women die every year in such circumstances, that is, one every minute approximately. In the course of this debate between 100 and 121 women will die, the vast majority of them in the underdeveloped world. Many will be teenagers or older women who already have large families. With the death of these mothers the likelihood of their children under the age of five years surviving is decimated. That is a great tragedy for the countries concerned.