The United Nations has presented a report on Thursday in which many shocking revelations have been made. The report said that despite a drop in maternal mortality rates by a third in 20 years, one woman dies every two minutes from complications during pregnancy. The United Nations said in the report that there has been a tremendous decline in the death of women between the years 2000 and 2015. Between 2016 and 2020, the death rate figure remained stable. At the same time, in some places, the death rate has also increased during this period.
Despite decline in maternal mortality rate, one woman dies every 2 minutes
According to a report by the World Health Organization and other UN agencies, the maternal mortality rate declined by 34.3 percent over a 20-year period, from 339 maternal deaths per 100,000 births in 2000 to 223 maternal deaths in 2020 . Still, this means that in 2020, nearly 800 women died per day – or roughly one woman every two minutes. World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that pregnancy should be a time of hope and a positive experience for all women, but it turns out to be a shockingly dangerous experience for millions of people around the world.
Maternal mortality increased in Greece and Cyprus
The report found that Belarus recorded a 95.5 per cent drop in such cases. While the highest maternal mortality rate has been recorded in Venezuela. Between 2016 and 2020, maternal mortality decreased in only two of the eight UN regions, by 35 percent in Australia and New Zealand, and 16 percent in Central and South Asia. Report author Jenny Cresswell told reporters that the two European countries that have seen “significant increases” are Greece and Cyprus.
Highest maternal mortality rate in these regions of Africa
Jenny Cresswell pointed out that maternal mortality is concentrated in the world’s poorest regions and conflict-affected countries. About 70 percent of deaths in 2020 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa, where the rate is 136 times higher than in Australia and New Zealand, he said. In Afghanistan, people in the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Yemen are facing severe humanitarian crises.
Why do women die
Maternal mortality rates in these regions are more than double the global average. He said that most of the deaths in such cases are due to severe bleeding, infection, HIV/AIDS causes of death. However, he added that all these are largely preventable and treatable.
