Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Agenzia Fides) – In 2005, 536,000 women died of causes linked to pregnancy and birth. Over 99% of these cases were registered in developing countries, the majority of them being in Africa and Asia. On average, 1500 women die each day as a result of pregnancy and birth complications. These are some of the statistics shown by UNICEF as to the maternal deaths that occur today in the world, especially in developing countries. The situation was revealed in the 2009 report entitled “State of the World's Children 2009,” which the UN agency has dedicated this year to the health of mothers and newborns, and in which a strong link is shown between the health and life of mothers and newborns, in respect to poverty and death rate, in respect to women's rights and the cost of survival for mother and child.
The report addresses the commonly used affirmation that “we are born equal,” which is true in theory but which does not correspond to the daily reality of millions of people. Being born and giving birth in Rome or New York is not the same as being born in Kabul or in a town in Sierra Leone, the UN agency reports. In fact, a child that is born in a developing country has almost 14 times as many chances of dying in the first month outside the womb, than a baby born in an industrialized nation. In the world of developing nations, the risk of maternal mortality is 1,000 times higher than the risk to women living in industrialized countries. Thus, 99% of the global mortality rate is concentrated in the poor nations, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia.
The report gives statistics that show the imbalance on a worldwide level: a woman from a less developed country is 300 times more exposed to the risk of death during her life as a result of complications in the pregnancy or at birth, than a woman who lives in an industrialized nation. According to UNICEF, no other mortality rate is so disproportionate.
Moreover, it shows that in the developing countries, the risk of maternal mortality is 1 out of every 76 women, versus 1 out of every 8,000 women in industrialized countries. The risk of maternal mortality ranges from 1 out of every 47,600 in Ireland (the lowest rate in the world) to 1out of every 7 in Niger, the country with the highest risk for maternal mortality. For every mother that dies for causes linked to pregnancy or birth, another 20 women are affected by diseases linked to pregnancy or suffer grave consequences. The study done by UNICEF estimates that each year 10 million women who survive a pregnancy suffer negative effects.
In the industrialized nations, the maternal mortality rate remained fairly stable between 1990-2005, at 8 out of every 100,000 live births. In the developing nations, the maternal mortality rate rises to 450 out of every 100,000. In Sierra Leone, the country with the highest maternal mortality rate – it is 2,100 deaths out of 100,000. Number 5 of the Millennium Development Goals is to reduce the 75% maternal mortality rate by 2015. However, in order to reach this goal, the world would have to decrease the maternal mortality rate to 70% between 2005 and 2015, and we are still very far from reaching this goal.
As for the neonatal mortality rate, the report explains that the children whose mothers die within the first 6 weeks after giving birth are at greater risk for dying within the first 2 years of their lives, than the children whose mothers survive. There is a direct link between the survival of the mother and the development of the child. A study in Afghanistan showed that nearly ¾ of the children born to mothers who die as a result of maternal causes, later died themselves. Thus, the study shows how a child born in under-developed nations has 14 times as many chances of dying within the first 28 days of their life than a child born in an industrialized nation. The 10 countries with the highest neonatal mortality rates (within the first 28 days) are: Liberia (66 deaths for every 1,000 live births), Ivory Coast (64), Iraq (63), Afghanistan (60), Sierra Leone (56), Angola (54), Mali (54), Pakistan (53), Central African Republic (52) and Lesotho (52). It also shows that 5 (Liberia, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Angola, and Mali) of the 10 countries with the highest neonatal mortality rate are also among the top 10 countries for maternal mortality rate or risk of death from maternal causes over the course of their life. On the contrary, in the industrialized nations, the neonatal mortality rate in 2004 was only 3 out of every 1,000 live births.
On a global level, the neonatal mortality rate has diminished by one-fourth between 1980 and 2000, which shows a much slower decrease in comparison to the decrease in the mortality rate of children under 5 years of age, which diminished by one-third. In general, nearly 40% of the deaths of children under 5 years of age took place during the first 28 days of life, three-fourths of them in the first 7 days. Almost all (98% in 2004) the neonatal deaths were registered in countries with low or mid-range income. (Mtp) (Agenzia Fides 20/1/2009)
