According to AFP, which Taiwan’s Central News Agency cited, the UN said that the maternal death rate dropped sharply between 2000 and 2015 but has mostly stayed the same between 2016 and 2020, with some regions going against the trend.
The report on trends in maternal mortality shows that the global maternal mortality rate fell by 34.3% over the last 20 years, from 339 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2000 to 223 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2020.
Still, this means that almost 800 women will die every day in 2020 or about one every two minutes.
The report says the death rate dropped the most in Belarus, by 95.5%, while it went up the most in Venezuela. The United States had the most growth between 2000 and 2015.
According to WHO fact sheets, a woman dies of complications related to pregnancy or childbirth if she dies. At the same time, she is pregnant or within six weeks of the end of her pregnancy.
“Even though pregnancy should be a happy and hopeful time for all women, it is still very dangerous for millions of women around the world,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the WHO.
Tedros also said, “These new data show how important it is to ensure that every woman and girl has access to important medical services and can fully exercise their reproductive rights.”
Most deaths of mothers happen in the poorest parts of the world and countries with wars.
Jenny Cresswell, the lead author of the report, said that in sub-Saharan Africa, where the death rate is 136 times higher than in Australia and New Zealand, about 70% of deaths that were recorded in 2020 took place.
In places like Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, where humanitarian crises are very bad, the death rate for mothers is more than twice the global average.
