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Maternal health basics by the numbers
  • 1 woman dies every minute due to pregnancy and childbirth-related complications. This is the equivalent of 3 jumbo jets of women crashing daily.
  • About 536,000 women die for these reasons every year, making maternal mortality a major human rights violation in the world.
  • 80% of maternal fatalities can be attributed to 5 major causes: Postpartum hemorrhage (27%), blood loss above 500 mL within the first 24 hours after birth (25%), infection (15%), unsafe abortion (13%), eclampsia or high blood pressure leading to seizures (12%), and obstructed labor (8%).
  • 99% of maternal deaths occur in the developing world.
  • Approximately 10 million children under age 5 die every year in low and middle-income countries. 4 million die within their first month of life.
  • Neonatal deaths make up about 40% of all fatalities that occur under age five, most resulting from infection and poor sanitation.
  • Today, there are over 145 million orphans in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Central America.
  • In Sierra Leone, 1 out of every 8 women dies during pregnancy or childbirth, the highest maternal mortality rate in the world.
Five things you may not know about maternal health
  • 14 million girls between ages 15 and 19 give birth a year. The risk of death is twice as high for adolescent and teenage mothers.
  • Only 40% of women have the help of a midwife or health professional during childbirth — the rest deliver with the aid of untrained family and friends, or completely alone.
  • By 2015, another 330,000 midwives will be needed to cover most births.
  • For every woman who dies during childbirth, 30 more are affected by injury or infection.
  • Basic maternal care costs only $3 per person per year in resource-poor countries.
Five things you may not know about neonatal health
  • 8 newborn babies die every passing minute.
  • 75% of neonatal deaths are preventable through low-tech, low-cost intervention.
  • 43% of women and newborns never receive postpartum care.
  • 14 of the 20 countries with the most newborn fatalities are in Sub-Saharan Africa.
  • Many newborns are not breastfed immediately after birth nor exclusively, or are fed inappropriate foods, leading to malnutrition and illness.
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