Maternal mortality rates fall by almost half since 1990

Women in the United States are twice as likely to die from causes related to pregnancy or childbirth than women in Canada, according to a survey published Thursday by the United Nations and the World Bank.

“This is huge progress but the progress is uneven across countries, across different regions of the world”, with 99 per cent of the deaths in developing countries, she told a news conference in Geneva.

Maternal mortality, defined as the death of a woman any time between pregnancy and 6 weeks after birth, is highest in underdeveloped nations.

Progress was analysed on the basis of reductions in the maternal mortality ratio, the number of maternal deaths per 100 000 live births.

Their analysis showed that the global MMR fell from approximately 385 deaths per 100 000 in 1990, to 216 in 2015, corresponding to a relative decline of 44%, with an estimated 303 000 maternal deaths worldwide in 2015.

According to the report: “The high number of maternal deaths in a few areas of the world reflects inequities in access to health services, and highlights the gap between rich and poor…” This group of countries includes North Korea, Zimbabwe, and Venezuela.

Despite reducing maternal mortality by nearly 50 per cent between 1990 and 2015, the world has fallen well short of the target of a 75 per cent reduction that appe-ared in the Millennium Development Goals. Since 2012, WHO, UNFPA and partners have developed Maternal Death Surveillance and Response for identification and timely notification of all maternal deaths, followed by review of their causes and the best methods of prevention.

Its website says chronic health conditions such as hypertension, diabetes and heart disease may put a pregnant woman at higher risk of pregnancy complications. “We are aware that we are able to basically stop these departures by 2030 and this is that which we’re giving to work towards”.

Mexico has a maternal mortality rate of 38 deaths per 100,000 births, down from 90 per 100,000 in 1990. “Education provides them with the knowledge to challenge traditional practices that endanger them and their children”.

At a summit meeting in September, world leaders adopted a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a successor to MDGs, with the objective of meeting these new goals by 2030.

Reaching that goal will require more than tripling the pace of progress – from the 2.3 per cent annual improvement in maternal death ratio that was recorded between 1990 and 2015 to 7.5 per cent per year beginning next year. The study is led by Drs Leontine Alkema of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, United States of America and Doris Chou, Department of Reproductive Health and Research, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland, with colleagues from the UN Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-Agency Group and academia.