Stagnant Progress in Maternal and Child Health: WHO Reports Extraordinarily High Rates of Preventable Deaths Worldwide

The World Health Organization indicated in a report that international progress in the field of maternal and child health suffers from stagnation. In a document released this month, WHO officials cited “extraordinarily high” rates of preventable maternal deaths, stillbirths and neonatal deaths.
In 2020 alone, the organization reports 4.5 million maternal and infant deaths, including 290,000 maternal deaths, 1.9 million stillbirths, and 2.3 million neonatal deaths worldwide.
The analysis measures progress towards the United Nations goals to reduce maternal mortality, end preventable deaths of newborns and children under five, and reduce stillbirths (stillbirths) worldwide. To do this, Member States have set goals for health care in areas including prenatal care, having skilled health professionals at every birth, and postnatal care for newborns.
But the World Health Organization warns that these goals will be difficult to achieve. She says the gains in the past decade have been slower than they were between 2000 and 2010, and the fallout from the pandemic, climate change, humanitarian crises and other factors could slow progress.

60% of the deaths occurred in 10 countries: India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Afghanistan and Tanzania.
To achieve the goals, the world will need to reduce maternal mortality by 11.6% annually during this decade, compared to a decline of 1.3% annually between 2010 and 2020, and continue to reduce stillbirths and infant deaths.
However, the organization wrote, “there is potential to save at least 7.8 million lives” by the end of the decade with increased investments in health and primary care financing, rebuilding services disrupted during the pandemic, and combating poverty, gender discrimination and humanitarian crises across the country. the world.
“Pregnant women and newborn babies continue to die at unacceptably high rates worldwide,” Anshu Banerjee, director of maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health at WHO, said in a press release. She added, “If we want to see different results, we have to do things differently. Smarter investments in primary health care are needed now so that every woman and child – no matter where they live – has the best chance of health and survival.”

Published by special arrangement with the Washington Post Leasing and Syndication service.