More women are at risk of dying during pregnancy and childbirth due to aid reductions by rich countries, which could have “pandemic type effects”, warned the United Nations agencies.
Pregnant women in conflict areas are the most vulnerable and face an “alarming” risk which is already five times higher than that, according to a new United Nations report on maternal mortality trends.
The deaths due to the complications of pregnancy and childbirth decreased by 40% worldwide between 2000 and 2023, but progress is “fragile” and have slowed down since 2016, the authors said. It is estimated that 260,000 women died in 2023 of causes related to pregnancy.
There is a “threat of major decline” in the midst of “winds,” said the authors. American financing reductions this year have noted that clinics were closed and that health workers are losing their jobs and have disrupted supply chains that provide vital medicines to treat the main causes of maternal deaths such as hemorrhage, pre-eclampsia and malaria, have warned experts from the World Health Organization.
The report-itself funded by the United States-revealed that maternal deaths increased by 40,000 in 2021 due to the cocovio pandemic, probably driven by complications from the virus itself and by health care disruptions.
Dr. Bruce Aylward, deputy managing director of WHO, said RISE could offer an overview of the possible impact of current aid reductions.
“With Covid, we have seen an acute shock from the system, and what is happening with funding is a keen shock,” he said.
“The countries have not had time to set up and plan what other funding they will use, which other workers they will use, (and) what compromises they are going to do in their systems to try to ensure that the most essential services can continue.”
The shock for the services, he said, would lead to “pandemic type effects”, adding that funding reductions not only risked progress, “but you might have a reverse”.
The deaths of the whole world should fall 10 times faster than at present – 15% rather than 1.5% per year – to reach the lasting development target of less than 70 per 100,000 live births before 2030.
The report has highlighted significant inequalities. In poor countries in 2023, there were 346 maternal deaths per 100,000 living births – almost 35 times the 10 per 100,000 in rich countries. While in high and higher intermediate income countries, 99% of births are assisted by a healthcare professional, this falls to 73% in poor countries.
The countries where there are conflicts, or which are characterized as “fragile”, represented 61% of global maternal deaths, but only 25% of world living births.
A 15 -year -old girl in a poor country has one in 66 chance of dying of a pregnancy or a cause linked to childbirth. In a rich country, the figure is one in 7,933 – and in a country at war, the figure is one in 51.
Catherine Russell, director of UNICEF, said: “World funding for health services are putting more pregnant women in danger, especially in the most fragile environments, limiting their access to essential care during pregnancy and the support they need during childbirth.
“The world must urgently invest in midwives, nurses and community health workers to ensure that each mother and each baby have the opportunity to survive and prosper.”
Maternal mortality rates have “stagnated” in many regions of the world since 2015, according to the report, including North Africa and a large part of Asia, Europe, North America and Latin and the Caribbean.
The authors called for other efforts to ensure that critical services have been maintained and to improve access to family planning and education services.
Pascale Allotey, director of the WHO reproduction health department, said: “It is an indictment on our humanity and a real parody of justice that women die today.
“It is really something that we all have a collective responsibility,” she said. “We have to intensify.”
