A woman still dies every two minutes in the world as a result of complications related to pregnancy or childbirth, despite the decrease in maternal deaths by a third in twenty years, according to the United Nations in a statement Thursday.
Mortality rates for pregnant women declined significantly between 2000 and 2015, and between 2016 and 2020 they either stabilized or increased in some countries.
A United Nations report prepared by the World Health Organization indicated that the global rate of maternal mortality decreased by 34.3% between 2000 and 2020.
Belarus was the country that witnessed the largest decline in maternal mortality rates, while Venezuela recorded the largest increase in these rates, followed by Cyprus, then Greece, and then the United States.
At the global level, 287,000 women died while pregnant or giving birth in 2020, which is equivalent to recording one death every two minutes, compared to 446,000 deaths in 2000.
However, this decrease is slight compared to the 309,000 similar deaths recorded in 2016, when the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals entered into force.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement that pregnancy remains “a very risky experience for millions of women around the world who do not have access to adequate and quality health services.”
“The new figures show the urgent need to ensure that every woman and girl has access to basic health services before, during and after childbirth, and that they can fully exercise their reproductive rights,” he added.
In recent years, maternal mortality rates have increased or stabilized in almost all countries, with the exception of Australia, New Zealand and Central and South Asia.
Global shortage of midwifes
Between 2016 and 2020, maternal mortality rates increased by 17% in Europe and North America, and 15% in Latin America and the Caribbean.
These rates were largely concentrated in the poorest regions of the world and in countries that have experienced conflict.
In 2020, 70% of all deaths occurred in sub-Saharan Africa, where maternal mortality rates are 136 times higher than similar rates in Australia and New Zealand, the two countries with the lowest numbers, said report author Jenny Creswell, at a press conference.
Maternal mortality rates in nine countries facing acute humanitarian crises (Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, Chad, Sudan and Afghanistan) are more than double the global average.
The main causes of death for pregnant women were acute bleeding, high blood pressure, infections related to pregnancy, complications of unsafe abortion, and conditions that may become severe as a result of pregnancy (such as HIV and malaria), all of which can be prevented and treated, according to the World Health Organization.
The organization stressed the importance of pregnant women undergoing prenatal examinations and receiving the necessary postpartum care, noting that women’s control over their reproductive health is “essential”, specifically with regard to their decision to have children and when they want to, so that they can plan pregnancy and leave a period of time between Every woman’s pregnancies.
“We can and should do better by investing urgently in family planning and filling the global shortage of 900,000 midwives,” UNFPA Executive Director Natalia Kanem said in a statement.
Doctor Anshu Banerjee of the World Health Organization said that the statistics dealing with the years after 2020, which are not yet known, appear bleak due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the economic crises afflicting the countries of the world.