Maternal Health - Problems

Problems

In many developing countries, complications of pregnancy and childbirth are the leading causes of death among women of reproductive age. A woman dies from complications from childbirth approximately every minute. According to the World Health Organization, in its World Health Report 2005, poor maternal conditions account for the fourth leading cause of death for women worldwide, after HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis. Most maternal deaths and injuries are caused by biological processes, not from disease, which can be prevented and have been largely eradicated in the developed world — such as postpartum hemorrhaging, which causes 34% of maternal deaths in the developing world but only 13% of maternal deaths in developed countries.

Although high-quality, accessible health care has made maternal death a rare event in developed countries, where only 1% of maternal deaths occur, these complications can often be fatal in the developing world because single most important intervention for safe motherhood is to make sure that a trained provider with midwifery skills is present at every birth, that transport is available to referral services, and that quality emergency obstetric care is available. In 2008 342,900 women died while pregnant or from childbirth worldwide. Although a high number, this was a significant drop from 1980, when 526,300 women died from the same causes. This improvement was caused by lower pregnancy rates in some countries; higher income, which improves nutrition and access to health care; more education for women; and the increasing availability of “skilled birth attendants” — people with training in basic and emergency obstetric care — to help women give birth. The situation was especially led by improvements in large countries like India and China, which helped to drive down the overall death rates. In India, the government started paying for prenatal and delivery care to ensure access, and saw successes in reducing maternal mortality, so much so that India is cited as the major reason for the decreasing global rates of maternal mortality.

One specific disease that causes significant maternal health problems is HIV/AIDS. Mother to child transmission of HIV in the developing world is a large concern; approximately 45% of infected mothers transmit the disease to their children and HIV is a major cause of maternal mortality, causing 60,000 maternal deaths in 2008. HIV rates are especially high in Sub-Saharan and Eastern Africa, where maternal mortality rates are on the rise.

Maternal health problems also include complications from childbirth that do not result in death. For every woman that dies during childbirth, approximately 20 suffer from infection, injury, or disability

Almost 50% of the births in developing countries still take place without a medically skilled attendant to aid the mother, and the ratio is even higher in South Asia. Women in Sub-Saharan Africa mainly rely on traditional birth attendants (TBAs), who have little or no formal health care training. In recognition of their role, some countries and non-governmental organizations are making efforts to train TBAs in maternal health topics, in order to improve the chances for better health outcomes among mothers and babies.