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Information that describes the suboptimal status of reproductive health and perinatal care in Russia, leading to the excessive deaths of mothers and infants, includes this data:
Fertility is falling and new births are not at replacement levels.
Maternal and infant deaths in Russia are two to three times higher than in countries of the European Union (EU). 
Fifty percent (50%) of mothers are not healthy during their pregnancy and at the birth of their child.
Over 50% of newborn infants are reportedly born unhealthy.
For every infant death, another pregnancy results in a stillborn infant.
Over half of all maternal and infant deaths in Russia occur during labor, delivery, or during the first week after birth - the perinatal period.
An even more disturbing finding is an increasing number of infants who survive infancy and are found to have neurological damage.
More than half of these infant deaths and the rising morbidity are preventable. This catastrophe, in major part, has resulted from the collapse of the Russian health care delivery system. This collapse has led to a combination of factors including the poor health of reproductive-aged women, badly managed pregnancies, and flawed childbirth practices. There are reduced quantities or even complete absences of some critical drugs and/or pieces of equipment needed during labor, delivery, or the first critical week after birth, the procurement of which can save lives. And finally, the maternal and perinatal surveillance system has not been designed to transparently document pregnancy outcomes for each individual woman in order to improve the quality of care and health outcomes of pregnancy.
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