World maternal deaths halve in 20 years

May 17th 2012

The global mortality rate for women giving birth has fallen by half over the past two decades, a UN report released today said. While there has been considerable progress, more work remains because a woman dies of pregnancy-related complications every two minutes, the report said.

The report from the World Health Organization, United Nations Children’s Fund, United Nations Population Fund and the World Bank said about 99 per cent of maternal deaths occur in developing nations, and most are preventable. It said there were an estimated 287,000 maternal deaths in 2010, a decline of 47 per cent since 1990.

Sub-Saharan Africa accounted for 56 per cent of the deaths and southern Asia another 29 percent, totaling 85 percent of the global tally of maternal deaths in 2010. Two countries accounted for a third of global maternal deaths: India at 19 per cent and Nigeria at 14 per cent, it said.

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Deaths among women giving birth were 15 times higher [in developing] than in developed countries, said the report, titled “Trends In Maternal Mortality: 1990 – 2010.”

Read the entire article: The Independent