Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Feb 23: Despite maternal death rates declining by a third in 20 years, a woman dies every two minutes from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth, according to the United Nations.
Rates dramatically decreased between 2000 and 2015, but between 2016 and 2020, they mostly stagnated, and in some locations, they even began to rise, according to the UN.
According to a report by the World Health Organization and other UN agencies, the worldwide maternal mortality rate decreased by 34.3 percent during a 20-year period, from 339 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 2000 to 223 maternal deaths in 2020.
Yet, that means that in 2020, there will be about 800 deaths of women per day, or one every two minutes.
The largest decrease was seen in Belarus (95.5%), while the largest gain was seen in Venezuela. The United States experienced the greatest increase between 2000 and 2015.
“While pregnancy should be a time of immense hope and a positive experience for all women, it is tragically still a shockingly dangerous experience for millions around the world,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“These new statistics reveal the urgent need to ensure every woman and girl has access to critical health services… and that they can fully exercise their reproductive rights,” it added.
Only two of the eight UN regions saw a decrease in maternal death rates between 2016 and 2020, according to the report: Australia and New Zealand had a 35 percent decrease and Central and Southern Asia saw a 16 percent decrease.
The rate increased by 17% in Europe and North America and by 15% in South America and the Caribbean. It stalled in other places.
According to the report’s author Jenny Cresswell, Greece and Cyprus are the two European nations that are experiencing “substantial surges.”
The poorest countries and regions of the world continue to have the highest rates of maternal mortality.
According to Cresswell, 70 percent of all deaths reported in 2020 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa, where the mortality rate is “136 times greater” than in Australia and New Zealand.
Rates were more than double the global average in Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, all of which were experiencing severe humanitarian crises.
According to the research, the most common causes of mortality are severe bleeding, infections, complications from unsafe abortions, and underlying diseases like HIV/AIDS, all of which are generally preventable and treatable.
In order for women to plan and space childbearing to maintain their health, the WHO stated that it was “essential” that they have control over their reproductive health, particularly about whether or not to have children.
The incidence of “needless” deaths among women, according to Natalia Kanem, director of the UN Population Fund, is “unconscionable.”
The WHO’s Anshu Banerjee told journalists that the statistics since then look grim because of the Covid-19 outbreak and the economic crisis, even if the report covers data up to 2020.
