This chapter explores the relationship between health and quality of life for pregnant and recent parity women in Lao emphasizing the difficulties involved in using traditional measures of quality of life and proposing an alternative method of assessing well-being. Implicit within the analysis is a critique of the use of Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5, as the standard measure of maternal outcomes. MDG5, as a goal for maternal health, refers only to survival and does not reflect the holistic sense of health embedded in the World Health Organisation (WHO) definition of health as a ‘state of complete physical, mental and social well-being’ rather than just lack of disease or infirmity. Is maternal mortality a sufficient indicator to guide Lao PDR’s health policy for pregnancy and birthing? The nexus between sex, gender, life-stage and culture in this particular context is used to understand women’s experiences of pregnancy and motherhood.