The Global Pulse Journal Blog

In somewhat belated honor of Mother’s Day in the US, I would like to share the following post by Vanessa Coleman at AMPLIFY:

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) , 99% of deaths during childbirth occur in low-income countries. For example, the chance of maternal death in high income countries is 1 in 7300, where as in low income countries it is 1 in 73. As young people, this is especially important and relevant because most of the young women who are dying could very well be our friends, schoolmates and classmates had they lived in a different country (particularly if they had been fortunate enough to live in a high income country as we do). The leading cause of death in young women aged 15-19 in low-income countries is from childbirth complications.

Leading causes of maternal mortality worldwide:

Within the US, maternal mortality rates are hardly cause for complacency.  The world’s foremost economic power (pending post-recession change in paradigm), we rank 28th in infant mortality, and 41st in maternal mortality:

Based on 2005 estimates, the U.N. analysis suggests that one in 4,800 women in the United States carry a lifetime risk of death from pregnancy. By contrast, among the 10 top-ranked industrialised countries, fewer than one in 16,400 are facing a similar situation.  The reason? According to experts, in many European countries and Japan in the industrialised world, women are guaranteed good-quality health and family planning services that minimise their lifetime risk.  Many independent experts and sympathetic legislators hold the current U.S. public health policy responsible for its dismal record because some 47 million U.S. citizens have no access to health insurance, most of them African Americans and other minorities. [IPS News]

Steep disparities in maternal health are linked to ethnicity and socioeconomic status, with African-American women being 4 times more likely to die in childbirth than white women, a point that is alternately called our “national shame”, and goes ignored.

More reading: How do socioeconomic factors affect disparities in mortality? by Deborah Maine, in the Journal of the American Medical Women’s Association, provides some nice historical context on maternal mortality in the US.