Giving birth is still a life-threatening risk for hundreds of thousands of women around the world. In 2020, 287,000 women died during pregnancy, during childbirth, or within forty-two days of termination of pregnancy, according to a report by several UN agencies published Thursday, February 23. This means that, across the world, a woman dies every two minutes related to her pregnancy. Admittedly, the situation has improved over the past twenty years – the number of maternal deaths fell by 34% between 2000 and 2020 – but the data has stagnated since 2016 at around 225 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births worldwide.
These global figures hide great disparities at the regional level. It is in sub-Saharan Africa that these deaths are the most numerous, concentrating approximately 70% of maternal deaths in the world. The region’s maternal mortality rate, of 545 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, is 136 times higher than those of New Zealand and Australia, first in the ranking. “In 2020, a 15-year-old girl in sub-Saharan Africa has the highest risk [de mourir à cause d’une grossesse]about 400 times more than in Australia and New Zealand”, note the authors of the report. Besides Africa, the regions most at risk are the Caribbean, Melanesia and South and Southeast Asia.
“Maternal mortality is a key indicator of the functioning of a health systemexplains Lale Say, head of unit at the World Health Organization (WHO). Despite the increase in the number of women delivering in health facilities, mortality outcomes are not improving. This shows that we need to invest in health systems, step up efforts to train workers and ensure they have the necessary tools and medicines. » The challenge, for the scientist, is to make reproductive and maternal health a global priority, in the same way as emergency situations or the climate crisis.
Increase in deaths in the United States
Because even high-income countries are not spared by the phenomenon. While Europe and the United States are among the regions with the lowest maternal mortality rates, their trend has been on the rise for several years. In Europe, the cases of Greece and Cyprus are particularly worrying, with a doubling in twenty years to reach respectively 8 and 68 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 2020. In both cases, the increase, which had already started in 2015, was particularly accentuated in 2020, a year marked by the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
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