( CNN ) -- The number of women dying in pregnancy and childbirth has dropped by a third in the past two decades , according to a report out Wednesday from four world bodies including Unicef and the World Health Organization . The report says the number has decreased by 34 percent , from an estimated 546,000 in 1990 to 358,000 in 2008 . `` The global reduction in maternal death rates is encouraging news , '' said WHO Director-General Margaret Chan . While the progress is notable , the rate of decline is still less than half of what is needed to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of a 75-percent reduction by 2015 , the report said . That would require an annual decline of 5.5 percent , whereas the 34-percent drop represents an annual decline of 2.3 percent . The reason for the decline in deaths is that countries with greater risks during pregnancy and childbirth are taking more effective measures , such as training more midwives and strengthening hospitals and health centers to assist pregnant women , Chan said . `` No woman should die due to inadequate access to family planning and to pregnancy and delivery care , '' she said . There are four major causes of death for pregnant women , according to the report : severe bleeding after childbirth , infections , hypertensive disorders , and unsafe abortion . Those four reasons caused 1,000 women to die in 2008 . More than half of those deaths happened in sub-Saharan Africa , and a third happened in South Asia . Women in developing countries are 36 times more at risk of dying from a pregnancy-related complication than a woman in a developed country , the report said . `` To achieve our global goal of improving maternal health and to save women 's lives , we need to do more to reach those who are most at risk , '' said Unicef Executive Director Anthony Lake . `` That means reaching women in rural areas and poorer households , women from ethnic minorities and indigenous groups , and women living with HIV and in conflict zones . '' Unicef and the World Health Organization issued the report together with the World Bank and the United Nations Population Fund .
Deaths have gone from 546,000 in 1990 to 358,000 in 2008 . The figures are in a new report from Unicef and the WHO . In some countries, such as India, there is no official data on deaths due to AIDS or malaria because they don't exist yet.