Posted on 01 March 2023
The United Nations Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-Agency Group has estimated in their new report that a woman dies every 2 minutes due to pregnancy. The data spans mortality in childbirth from 2000 to 2020, and showed there was around 287,000 maternal deaths in 2020. A key finding was that progress in the earlier 2000s was stalled or reversed from 2015-2020.
This issue is exasperated in countries who are dealing with humanitarian crisis already; in nine countries suffering severely the rates were almost double the global average. “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 who lack access to high quality, respectful health care,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO).
UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem says these inequities must be addressed. “We have the tools, knowledge and resources to end preventable maternal deaths; what we need now is the political will.