Progress in the fight against maternal mortality is stagnant and is now threatened by cuts in humanitarian aid, which undermines health services, warned the UN on Monday, April 7.
A report published by the World Health Organization (WHO), on behalf of several UN agencies, reports a 40% drop in maternal mortality between 2000 and 2023 worldwide, largely thanks to the improvement of access to essential health services. But progress has slowed down in the last decade.
“Some regions are already returning. In this context of fragility, the complacency is not only dangerous, it is fatal,” said the director of sexual and reproductive health at WHO, Pascale Allotey, at a press conference.
WHO estimates the number of women who died in 2023 with 260,000 after complications related to pregnancy or childbirth, “one death every two minutes.” Poor countries are the most affected.
“Strengthen health and reproductive rights”
“If this report shows Glimmer of Hope, the data also emphasizes how dangerous pregnancy remains in a large part of the world today,” said the CEO of WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a press release.
“In addition to guaranteeing access to quality maternity care, it will be essential to strengthen the health and reproductive rights of women and girls,” he added.
The report is published while the reductions in humanitarian aid, particularly from the return to the power of Donald Trump in the United States, have serious repercussions on essential medical care in many regions, even in humanitarian situations.
“We will face the louder and harder,” warned Dr. Bruce Aylward, WHO general deputy director, during the press conference, explaining that the reduction of aid affects access to drugs and medical equipment, but also for qualified personnel.
And COVVI-19 served as a lesson to show the terrible damage that health services can do.
Drastic cuts in the help of the United States
As with Cavid pandemic, drastic cuts in the help of the United States abroad are an “acute shock to which countries have not had time” to prepare.
“Reductions in assigned funds can not only compromise progress but also to drive back,” Bruce Aylward said. The report also provides the world’s first world description of maternal mortality.
“There were around 40,000 additional maternal deaths in 2021, or 322,000 against 282,000 the previous year,” Jenny Cresswell, who and author of the author told journalists.
“This increase is related not only to the direct consequences of the COVVI-19, but also to the generalized interruptions of motherhood care,” he said. The report also highlights persistent inequalities in the world.
With a fall in maternal mortality of around 40% between 2000 and 2023, sub -Saharan Africa has achieved significant progress and is one of the three regions of the United Nations, with Australia/ New Zealand and Central and South Asia, has registered significant reductions after 2015.
Despite this improvement, Sub -Saharan Africa represented around 70% of maternal deaths in 2023.
Five regions affected by this stagnation
A sign of a slowdown in progress in the world, the fight against maternal mortality has stagnated in five regions since 2015: in North Africa, Western Asia, East and Southeast, Oceania (excluding Australia and New Zealand), in Europe and North America, and Latin America/Caribbean.
The maternal mortality rate in the United States is “very low”, but “it is one of the countries where we observe ascending trends”, 38% more between 2000 and 2023, explained Jenny Cresswell.
On the other hand, she believes that it is premature to decide on the effects of lifting federal abortion protection in the United States in 2022.
Source: BFM TV
