Catholic Information Service for Africa (Nairobi)
19 September 2008
More than 99 per cent of all maternal deaths occur in developing countries, with some 84 per cent concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, a new report shows.
'Progress for Children: A Report Card on Maternal Mortality' released Friday by the UN children's agency UNICEF highlights the risks faced during pregnancy and childbirth by women in developing countries.
"The tragic fact is that every year more than half a million women lose their lives as a result of complications due to pregnancy or childbirth," said Peter Salama, UNICEF's Chief of Health.
"The causes of maternal mortality are clear - as are the means to combat them. Yet women continue to die unnecessarily."
Haemorrhage is the most common cause of death, particularly in Africa and Asia. A woman's overall health - including her nutritional level and HIV status - also influences the chances of a positive outcome to her pregnancy and childbirth.
Other influences include societal factors, such as poverty, inequity and general attitudes towards women and their health. Maternal mortality rates are often impacted by cultural or traditional practices that often prevent women from seeking delivery or post-partum care.
In the developing world, the risk of death from complications relating to pregnancy and childbirth over the course of a woman's lifetime is one in 76, compared with one in 8,000 in the industrialized world. The riskiest place to give birth in is Niger, where that risk is estimated to be one in seven.
In Kenya, according to the report, about half of all women give birth at home and if they face a serious emergency are often too far away from medical care. Women living in the more remote arid and semi-arid districts are most vulnerable because of the long distance to health centres, poor roads and lack of transportation.
Most maternal deaths are avoidable through better health care, particularly during pregnancy, delivery and in the post-partum period. Interventions that improve maternal health include: antenatal care, provider-initiated HIV testing and counselling, skilled attendance at birth, emergency obstetric care, post-partum care and family planning.
However, the pace of progress towards reaching the Millennium Development Goal on maternal health, which calls for a 75 per cent reduction in the maternal mortality ratio between 1990 and 2015, has been too slow throughout the developing world and must now be accelerated if the goal is to be reached, the report says.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Catholic Information Service for Africa. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
