From The Post (Cameroon): The Horrendous Facts of Maternal Mortality

The Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, Thoraya Ahmed Obaid recently reported that,

“one woman out of 20 in Africa risks dying of maternal causes, compared to one out of eleven in Portugal.

She said somewhere in the world, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, every minute the 380 women who become pregnant, half are those who did not plan or want the pregnancy while 110 of them suffer pregnancy-related complications. Out of this number, 40 women have unsafe abortions while 10 are infected with HIV/AIDS, she said.

According to her, no woman should die giving birth. Giving women around the world access to contraceptives and family planning, she stated, could reduce the number of maternal deaths by 20 to 35 percent. She urged governments to provide the women with access to skilled health workers during the time of birth and to emergency obstetric care when needed.”

The Post (Cameroon) also reports that,

“The research that was carried out for 20 years, reveal that at least 125,000 women die of haemorrhage during child birth each year for lack of access to safe, adequate blood supplies or transfusion.

The release states that hypertension often goes undiagnosed, especially among poor women who receive little preventive or prenatal health care. At least 35 percent of women are said not to receive any prenatal and half give birth with no skilled attendant present in developing countries.

The study equally reveals that about one-third of all pregnancies are unintended. The number is estimated at some 80 million per year, a situation that makes it possible for an estimated 19 million unsafe abortions carried each year most in the developing world.

Nearly 70,000 women die from unsafe abortions each year and millions more suffer long-term illness or disability. It is estimated that in Uganda, post abortion care in hospitals cost the health system 10 times more than elective abortion services by mid-level primary care practitioners.

An infection known as sepsis is common to poor women who give birth at home in unsanitary conditions or in clinics that lack sterile equipment. Obstructed labour and obstetric fistula constitute another health jinx to women’s bodies or the bodies of young girls may be immature and too small for a baby’s head to pass easily through the birth canal.”