Pregnancy 300 times deadlier in least developed world
January 17, 2009 by Marijke Durning, RN
Filed under Women's Health
UNICEF has issued its latest State of the World’s Children report and, although there are some improvements in some countries, women in the world’s least developed countries are 300 times more likely to die in childbirth or from pregnancy-related complications than women in developed countries.
According to their press release,
"Every year, more than half a million women die as a result of pregnancy or childbirth complications, including about 70,000 girls and young women aged 15 to 19," said Ann M. Veneman, UNICEF Executive Director, at the Johannesburg launch. "Since 1990, complications related to pregnancy and childbirth have killed an estimated 10 million women."
Both mothers and infants are vulnerable in the days and weeks after birth – a critical time for life-saving interventions, such as post-natal visits, proper hygiene, and counseling about the danger signs of maternal and newborn health.
While many developing countries have made excellent progress improving their child survival rate in recent years, there has been less headway in reducing maternal mortality.
Niger and Malawi, for example, nearly cut their under-five death rates in half between 1990 and 2007. In Indonesia, under-five death rates fell to nearly a third of what they were in 1990, and in Bangladesh they fell by more than a half.
The same progress has not been made in addressing health risks for mothers, who are most vulnerable during delivery and in the first days after birth. And while the rate of survival for children under five years of age is improving globally, the risks faced by infants in the first 28 days remain at unacceptably high levels in many countries.
A lot of work still needs to be done to help these women and their children.
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Image: Newscom
Tags: pregnancy blog, maternal death, maternal survival rate, maternal mortality in africa
