Rights corner
Maternal Mortality : A woman a minute
More than half a million women die each year from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth one every minute. Most of these deaths could have been prevented. The complications are largely unpredictable, but they can be treated.
The vast majority of women who die are poor and come from developing countries. In some western European countries, one woman in 25,000 dies during pregnancy or childbirth. But in sub-Saharan Africa, the lifetime risk of maternal mortality is 1 in 26, and as high as 1 in 7 in some countries. In rich countries, a disproportionate number of the women who die come from marginalized and poor communities.
This is not only a global health emergency; it is a human rights scandal. Women have the right to life, but they are dying needlessly because of poverty, injustice and gender discrimination. Women have the right to the highest attainable standard of health, but they face financial and social barriers in access to health care. Women have the right to determine when they become pregnant, but many are denied contraception and control over their bodies.
Skilled attendance at birth and emergency obstetric care are key to reducing maternal mortality. But in too many places health care services are of poor quality or are simply inaccessible, especially for women living in poverty and women living in remote areas.
When women living in poverty have to pay for health care, there are delays in the decision to go to a clinic or hospital, delays in reaching the facility because of time spent raising money and delays in receiving treatment once they arrive. These delays can prove deadly.
Poverty drives maternal mortality, and maternal death and injury drive families further into poverty. The women who die leave behind families struggling to survive. More than one million children are left motherless each year. Maternal mortality reflects the cycle of human rights abuse deprivation, exclusion, insecurity and voicelessness that defines and perpetuates poverty.
The UN Millennium Development Goals are internationally agreed targets to reduce poverty. Millennium Development Goal 5 seeks to cut maternal mortality by 75 per cent from 1990 levels by 2015. However, very few countries are on track to reach this target. In sub-Saharan Africa, where the problem is most acute, progress has been negligible. Maternal mortality is not only a question of public health it is a critical human rights issue. Women have the right to have access to services that could save their lives or prevent disabling injury in childbirth. Governments are responsible for providing those services. And governments should be held answerable if they fail to do so.
Source: Amnesty International.
