A woman dies every two minutes globally from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth, even though maternal mortality has fallen by a third in twenty years, the United Nations warned today.

Progress had been made in reducing the number of deaths of this nature between 2000 and 2015, but the gains stalled and in some cases, the situation reversed after a period.

As pointed out in a United Nations report compiled by the World Health Organization (WHO), the global maternal mortality rate decreased by 34.3% from 2000 to 2020.

Belarus recorded the largest decrease, while Venezuela recorded the largest increase, followed by Cyprus, Greece and the US, according to the text.

Globally, 287,000 women died during pregnancy or childbirth in 2020 – in other words, one death every two minutes – up from 446,000 in 2000.

But the reduction is far more marginal than the 309,000 deaths recorded in 2016, when the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) came into effect.

Pregnancy remains an “extremely dangerous experience for millions of women around the world who do not have access to high-quality, respectful health services,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the WHO, according to the press release issued by his offices in Geneva.

“These new statistics reveal the urgent need to ensure that every woman and girl has access to critical health services before, during and after birth and the opportunity to fully exercise their reproductive rights.”

The number of deaths increased or remained stagnant in almost all regions of the world in recent years, with the exception of Australia and New Zealand (–35%) and central and southern Asia (–16%).

Shortage of 900,000 midwives worldwide

In two of the eight regions of the United Nations – Europe/North America and Latin America/Caribbean – the maternal mortality ratio, instead of falling, increased in the period from 2016 to 2020, respectively by 17% and 15%.

The deaths, however, are concentrated in the poorest regions of the world and in countries affected by armed conflicts.

In 2020, about 70% of deaths occurred in sub-Saharan Africa, where the maternal mortality rate is “136 times higher than in Australia and New Zealand,” said UN report author Dr. Jenny Cresswell, during a press conference.

In nine countries facing severe humanitarian crises (Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, DR Congo, Central African Republic, Chad, Sudan and Afghanistan), the maternal mortality ratio is more than double the global average.

The main causes of death are haemorrhages, arterial hypertension, pregnancy-related infections, high-risk abortion complications and underlying diseases that pregnancy tends to aggravate (HIV/AIDS, malaria…), as well as complications which could easily have been prevented or cured, according to the WHO.

The organization emphasizes the importance of prenatal check-ups and post-natal medical care and calls it “absolutely essential” that women have control over their reproductive health, in particular that they can decide whether and when to have children, so that they can to plan and allow certain periods of time to pass between pregnancies.

“We can and must do better by urgently investing in family planning and filling the global shortage of 900,000 midwives,” said the Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Dr. Natalia Kanem, in the organization’s press release.

Worse, according to Dr. WHO’s Ansu Banerjee, the statistics for 2020, which are not yet known, are announced as gloomy, due to the side effects of the novel coronavirus pandemic and the economic crisis.