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MNCAHDataData & Analytics

Topic

Childbirth care.

Most maternal and newborn deaths occur around the time of birth, when a skilled attendant can recognise and begin managing the complications that develop fastest.

What it is

Childbirth care is the care a woman and her newborn receive during labour, delivery and the hours immediately afterwards. UNICEF, in collaboration with WHO, is the custodian agency for the Sustainable Development Goal indicator on births attended by skilled health personnel.

Why it matters

What childbirth care can provide

  • 01Complications concentrate in a short windowHaemorrhage, obstructed labour, eclampsia and sepsis can develop rapidly during and immediately after birth. A skilled attendant can recognise these and begin management or arrange referral.
  • 02The same contact serves the newbornImmediate newborn care — drying and warmth, support with breathing where required, and early support for breastfeeding — depends on someone present who is trained to provide it.
  • 03Referral depends on being seenWhere a complication requires surgery or transfusion, an attendant able to identify the problem and arrange transfer is often the determining step in reaching that care.
  • 04It indicates health-system reachSkilled attendance reflects whether a health system can place trained personnel where births actually occur, which is part of why it is monitored as an SDG indicator.

Where we are

Skilled attendance has risen, and exceeds delivery in a facility

Globally, 87.2 per cent of births are attended by skilled health personnel, up from 68.9 per cent in 2008. Around 79.5 per cent of births take place in a health facility.

Skilled attendance is higher than institutional delivery because a doctor, nurse or midwife can attend a birth outside a facility. The two indicators measure different things, and neither is a subset of the other.

Caesarean section accounted for about 20.5 per cent of births in 2025, compared with 9.6 per cent in 2008. Both very low and very high rates can indicate a problem: too little access to emergency obstetric care, or use beyond medical need.

Three measures of childbirth care. These are parallel indicators rather than steps in a sequence — none is a subset of another.

79.5%coverage

MNCH global aggregates, February 2026

Skilled attendance exceeds institutional delivery because skilled personnel can attend births outside a facility. Caesarean section rate is not a coverage measure: it is interpreted against clinical need rather than maximised.

A mother rests on a bed with her newborn lying next to her.
© UNICEF/UNI630731/Scott Rotzoll

Change over time

Change over time

Births attended by skilled health personnel, globally. Estimates are pooled across multi-year periods rather than annual.

68.9%around200879.5%around201587.2%around2025
Source: MNCH global and regional aggregates, February 2026 release.

What is measured

An SDG indicator, with known limits on what it captures

UNICEF, in collaboration with WHO, is the custodian agency for SDG indicator 3.1.2, the proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel. It sits under Target 3.1: to reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to fewer than 70 per 100,000 live births by 2030.

UNICEF and WHO have maintained a joint database on skilled attendance at birth since 2015, with estimates released annually.

Births attended by skilled health personnel
The percentage of live births attended by skilled health personnel — a doctor, nurse or midwife — in a specified reference period.
Institutional delivery
The percentage of live births that take place in a health facility.
Caesarean section rate
The percentage of live births delivered by caesarean section.

Read these figures with care

  • The presence of a skilled attendant may not adequately capture access to good-quality care, particularly when complications arise.
  • The indicator carries no information on the supplies and equipment available to the attendant, which affect what care can be given.
  • The definition of skilled health personnel can be difficult to standardise, because training differs across countries and an attendant's ability to manage an emergency depends on the environment in which they work.
  • Caesarean section rate should not be read as a coverage indicator. Both unusually low and unusually high rates can signal a problem.

Where to get the data

Where to find the data

References

  1. UNICEF and WHO, joint database on skilled attendance at birth, maintained since 2015.
  2. UNICEF, The State of the World's Children 2024, New York, 2024.
  3. WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, World Bank Group and UN Population Division, Trends in Maternal Mortality: 2000 to 2020, Geneva, 2023.

Related topics

Copy last reviewed July 2026.