In rural Madhya Pradesh, an innovative free maternity ambulance service called "Janani Express", which runs in partnership between the state government and the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), is trying to increase the number of babies born in clinics where proper care can be provided to the mothers and newborn children, and infant mortality can be decreased.

Before this initiative, women would have been left to give birth in the fields or on mud floors. Now, the free ambulance brings pregnant women across dusty roads to health clinics where they can give birth safely under basic medical supervision, be nursed afterwards and educated on the importance of breastfeeding and hygiene before returning to their villages and communities.

The United Nations' International Women's Day is being celebrated today March 8, 2012. — Photos by Reuters