Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/GENEVA: A woman dies every two minutes due to pregnancy and childbirth complications, despite maternal mortality rates dropping by a third in 20 years, the United Nations said Thursday. The UN said that rates fell significantly between 2000 and 2015 but largely stagnated between 2016 and 2020 — and in some regions, have even reversed.
According to the Arab News, World Health Organization and other UN agencies said that the overall maternal mortality rate dropped by 34.3 percent over 20 years from 339 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 2000 to 223 maternal deaths in 2020. Nonetheless, that means 800 women died per day in 2020, or around one every two minutes.
Belarus recorded the most significant decline, down 95.5 percent, while Venezuela saw the highest increase. Between 2000 and 2015, the most significant increase was in the United States (US).
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that “While pregnancy should be a time of immense hope and the positive experience for all women, it is tragically still the shockingly dangerous experience for millions worldwide” “These fresh statistics reveal the urgent need to ensure every girl and woman has access to critical health services and they can fully exercise their reproductive rights.”
UN report
A report found that between 2016 and 2020, maternal mortality rates dropped in only two of the eight United Nations (UN) regions: in Australia and New Zealand by 35 percent and in Central and Southern Asia by 16 percent. The rate increased in Europe and Northern America by 17 percent and in Latin America and the Caribbean by 15 percent. Elsewhere, it stagnated. The report’s author Jenny Cresswell told journalists that the two European countries witnessing “significant increases” are Greece and Cyprus.
Maternal deaths remain primarily concentrated in the world’s poorest regions and conflict-affected countries. Cresswell said that Around 70 percent of those deaths recorded in 2020 were in sub-Saharan Africa, where the rate is “136 times bigger” than in Australia and New Zealand. In Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, Chad, South Sudan, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, all facing severe humanitarian crises, rates were more than twice the world average.
The report said that severe bleeding, infections, and complications from unsafe abortions and underlying conditions such as HIV/AIDS are among the leading causes of death, which are all largely preventable and treatable.
The WHO said that it was “critical” women had control over their reproductive health, particularly about if and when to have children, so they can plan and space childbearing to protect their health. Head of the UN Population Fund, Natalia Kanem, said that the rate of women “needlessly” dying was “unconscionable.” She said that “We can and must do better by urgently investing in family planning and filling the world shortage of 900,000 midwives,”.
The report covers data up to 2020; the WHO’s Anshu Banerjee said that the statistics since then look bleak due to the Covid pandemic and the economic issues.
