A report issued by United Nations agencies said, on Wednesday, that maternal death rates related to pregnancy and childbirth increased or remained at the same level in almost all regions around the world during 2020, which represents a major setback in global efforts to combat complications during childbirth or pregnancy, according to Reuters.
The report, which tracks the maternal mortality rate at the local, regional and global levels from 2000 to 2020, showed that there were about 287,000 maternal deaths worldwide in 2020, which represents only a slight decrease from 309,000 in 2016.
The report estimated that this translates to a woman dying every two minutes during childbirth or pregnancy.
“It is unacceptable that so many women continue to die unnecessarily during pregnancy and childbirth. More than 280,000 deaths in one year is unaffordable,” said Natalia Kanem, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund.
The study author and WHO epidemiologist, Jenny Creswell, said that the data indicates that deaths have increased in areas where access to health services is limited in a timely manner.
In two of the eight UN regions, Europe and North America and Latin America and the Caribbean, maternal mortality increased from 2016 to 2020, by 17 percent and 15 percent, respectively.
Most of the deaths were largely concentrated in the poorest parts of the world, and in countries affected by conflict.
One of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals is to “reduce maternal mortality to 70 per 100,000 live births globally by 2030.”
According to estimates, the rate for the year 2020 was about 223 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births.
The Corona pandemic may have hindered further progress, according to UN agencies.
But Creswell said, “The trends we’re seeing have been happening for at least five or six years, so they predate the pandemic by several years.”
