Maternal Health

The most common direct causes of maternal injury and death are excessive blood loss, infection, high blood pressure, unsafe abortion, and obstructed labour, as well as indirect causes such as anemia, malaria, and heart disease.

Ending preventable maternal death must remain at the top of the global agenda. At the same time, simply surviving pregnancy and childbirth can never be the marker of successful maternal health care. It is critical to expand efforts reducing maternal injury and disability to promote health and well-being.

Maternal Health

Download Zip 🔥 https://fancli.com/2y7OS3 🔥

Every pregnancy and birth is unique. Addressing inequalities that affect health outcomes, especially sexual and reproductive health and rights and gender, is fundamental to ensuring all women have access to respectful and high-quality maternity care.

About 140 million births take place every year and the proportion attended by skilled health personnel has increased: from 58% in 1990 to 81% in 2019. This is mostly due to larger numbers of births taking place at a health facility.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) offers an opportunity for the international community to work together and accelerate progress to improve maternal health for all women, in all countries, under all circumstances.

SDG targets for maternal health include 3.1, aiming for an average global ratio of less than 70 deaths per 100 000 births by 2030, and 3.8, calling for the achievement of universal health coverage. These cannot be achieved without reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health coverage for all.

Promoting health along the whole continuum of pregnancy, childbirth and postnatal care is also crucial. This includes good nutrition, detecting and preventing diseases, ensuring access to sexual and reproductive health and supporting women who may be experiencing intimate partner violence.

WHO supports Member States as they implement plans to promote access to quality health services for all. Strong partnerships are crucial, such as The Network for Improving Quality of Care for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, launched by WHO and UNICEF.

Maternal health refers to the health of women during pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. The major causes of maternal morbidity and mortality include haemorrhage, infection, high blood pressure, unsafe abortion, and obstructed labour.

Achievement of sexual and reproductive health is also a human rights issue. Failure to improve sexual and reproductive health has adverse effects as it also relates to numerous health outcomes such as infant and child mortality rates and HIV prevention and care.

The African Region has large intraregional disparities in terms of coverage of basic maternal health interventions like antenatal care. While Southern Africa reported almost universal coverage in 2010, in West Africa about one third of pregnant women did not receive antenatal care visits.

Very early childbearing brings with it heightened health risks for mothers and their infants. Early childbearing is also linked to outcomes such as lower educational attainment and poverty. The African Region continues to have the highest birth rate among adolescents with approximately 120 births per 1000 adolescent women.

The high number of maternal deaths in some areas of the world reflects inequities in access to health services, and highlights the gap between rich and poor. Almost all maternal deaths (99%) occur in developing countries. More than half of these deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa and almost one third occur in South Asia. More than half of maternal deaths occur in fragile and humanitarian settings.

The maternal mortality ratio in developing countries in 2015 is 239 per 100 000 live births versus 12 per 100 000 live births in developed countries. There are large disparities between countries, but also within countries, and between women with high and low income and those women living in rural versus urban areas.

The risk of maternal mortality is highest for adolescent girls under 15 years old and complications in pregnancy and childbirth is a leading cause of death among adolescent girls in developing countries.2, 3

Most maternal deaths are preventable, as the health-care solutions to prevent or manage complications are well known. All women need access to antenatal care in pregnancy, skilled care during childbirth, and care and support in the weeks after childbirth. Maternal health and newborn health are closely linked. It was estimated that approximately 2.7 million newborn babies died in 20155, and an additional 2.6 million are stillborn6. It is particularly important that all births are attended by skilled health professionals, as timely management and treatment can make the difference between life and death for both the mother and the baby.

To avoid maternal deaths, it is also vital to prevent unwanted and too-early pregnancies. All women, including adolescents, need access to contraception, safe abortion services to the full extent of the law, and quality post-abortion care.

Poor women in remote areas are the least likely to receive adequate health care. This is especially true for regions with low numbers of skilled health workers, such as sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Globally in 2015, births in the richest 20 per cent of households were more than twice as likely to be attended by skilled health personnel as those in the poorest 20 per cent of households (89 per cent versus 43 per cent). This means that millions of births are not assisted by a midwife, a doctor or a trained nurse.

In high-income countries, virtually all women have at least four antenatal care visits, are attended by a skilled health worker during childbirth and receive postpartum care. In 2015, only 40% of all pregnant women in low-income countries had the recommended antenatal care visits.

In addition, WHO advocates for more affordable and effective treatments, designs training materials and guidelines for health workers, and supports countries to implement policies and programmes and monitor progress.

During the United Nations General Assembly 2015, in New York, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched the Global Strategy for Women's, Children's and Adolescents' Health, 2016-20307. The Strategy is a road map for the post-2015 agenda as described by the Sustainable Development Goals and seeks to end all preventable deaths of women, children and adolescents and create an environment in which these groups not only survive, but thrive, and see their environments, health and wellbeing transformed.

Since 2008, MHTF has remained committed to amplifying important research and critical insights in maternal health. Search our Blog Post Archive to learn from professionals about an array of topics in global maternal health.

The Connected Future of Maternity Care Roundtable gathered public and private sector thought leaders from a variety of disciplines on the front lines of the maternal health crisis, including policymakers, telecommunications, public health, clinical, research, and data analytics experts, to explore the intersection between broadband connectivity and maternal health and why broadband is critically important in maternal health. Participants also explored the role of broadband as a social determinant of health and the implications of this framework to improve maternal health outcomes and inform broadband and health policies. Improving maternal health equity through increased access to broadband-enabled health technologies, tools, and solutions is a critical priority and was an overarching theme of the event. Finally, participants discussed and helped accelerate a cross-agency, cross-sector dialogue on more fully leveraging broadband to help address the maternal health crisis facing our nation.

Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia accounted for approximately 86% (254 000) of the estimated global maternal deaths in 2017. Sub-Saharan Africa alone accounted for roughly two-thirds (196 000) of maternal deaths, while Southern Asia accounted for nearly one-fifth (58 000).

At the same time, between 2000 and 2017, Southern Asia achieved the greatest overall reduction in MMR: a decline of nearly 60% (from an MMR of 384 down to 157). Despite its very high MMR in 2017, sub-Saharan Africa as a sub-region also achieved a substantial reduction in MMR of nearly 40% since 2000. Additionally, four other sub-regions roughly halved their MMRs during this period: Central Asia, Eastern Asia, Europe and Northern Africa. Overall, the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) in less-developed countries declined by just under 50%.

Most maternal deaths are preventable, as the health-care solutions to prevent or manage complications are well known. All women need access to high-quality care in pregnancy, and during and after childbirth. Maternal health and newborn health are closely linked. It is particularly important that all births are attended by skilled health professionals, as timely management and treatment can make the difference between life and death for the mother as well as for the baby.

To avoid maternal deaths, it is also vital to prevent unwanted pregnancies. All women, including adolescents, need access to contraception, safe abortion services to the full extent of the law, and quality post-abortion care.

The Latin American Center for Perinatology / Women's Health and Reproductive Health (CLAP/WR) of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) provides technical cooperation of excellence to promote, strengthen and improve health care for women, mothers, and newborns in the countries of the Region of the Americas. It was created in 1970 in Montevideo and currently is part of the Health Systems and Services (HSS) Department.

Its working areas are framed within several goals of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 3, such as reducing the maternal mortality rate, reducing neonatal mortality and premature mortality due to non-communicable diseases through prevention and treatment. It also seeks to guarantee universal access to sexual and reproductive health services, including contraception, information and education, and the integration of reproductive health into national strategies and programs. 006ab0faaa