Ajit Karn
Geneva, Switzerland: The United Nations reported on Thursday that a woman dies every two minutes due to pregnancy or childbirth complications, despite the fact that maternal mortality rates have decreased by a third in the past two decades.
According to the United Nations, rates declined considerably between 2000 and 2015, but essentially stagnated between 2016 and 2020, and in some regions even reversed.
According to a report by the World Health Organization and other United Nations agencies, the global maternal mortality rate decreased 34.3% over a 20-year period, from 339 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 2000 to 223 maternal deaths in 2020.
In spite of this, in 2020, nearly 800 women will perish daily, or one every two minutes.
Belarus experienced the largest decrease, 95.5%, while Venezuela saw the largest increase. From 2000 to 2015, the United States experienced the greatest growth.
“While pregnancy should be a time of great hope and a positive experience for all women, it is tragically still a shockingly hazardous experience for millions around the globe,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization.
“These new statistics demonstrate the critical need to ensure that every woman and child has access to essential health services… and can completely exercise their reproductive rights.”
In only two of the eight UN regions did maternal mortality rates decline between 2016 and 2020, according to the report: by 35% in Australia and New Zealand and by 16% in Central and Southern Asia.
‘Unconscionable’
The rate increased by 17 percent in Europe and Northern America, and by 15 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean. Elsewhere, it stalled out.
Greece and Cyprus are the two European nations experiencing “significant increases,” report author Jenny Cresswell told journalists.
The majority of maternal fatalities continue to occur in the world’s lowest regions and conflict-affected nations.
Creswell stated that approximately 70% of the fatalities documented in 2020 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa, where the rate is “136 times higher” than in Australia and New Zealand.
Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, all of which are experiencing severe humanitarian crises, had rates that were more than double the global average.
According to the report, severe bleeding, infections, complications from unsafe abortions, and underlying conditions such as HIV/AIDS are among the primary causes of mortality — all of which are preventable and treatable to a significant extent.
The World Health Organization deemed it “crucial” for women to have control over their reproductive health, notably regarding whether and when to have children, so that they can plan and space childbearing to safeguard their health.
A Woman Dies Every 2 Minutes During Pregnancy Or Childbirth: UN – https://t.co/VJyZLECV18
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Natalia Kanem, director of the United Nations Population Fund, described the rate of women dying “needlessly” as “unconscionable.”
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She stated, “We can and must do better by investing urgently in family planning and addressing the global shortage of 900,000 midwives.”
While the report contains data through the year 2020, Anshu Banerjee of the WHO told journalists that the statistics since then are grim due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the economic crisis.
