Vienna, May 9, (dpa/GNA) – United Nations Organizations on Tuesday criticized the lack of progress in the fight against preventable deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth.
Every year around 4.5 million mothers and babies die worldwide during pregnancy, at birth or in the first weeks of life.
According to a UN report, the numbers have stagnated since 2015 at around 2.3 million children dying within the first month of life and 1.9 million of stillbirths, while around 290,000 women and girls die each year from complications of pregnancy and childbirth.
Dr Anshu Banerjee, director of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing at the World Health Organization (WHO), said these rates are unacceptable.
“Pregnant women and newborns continue to die at unacceptably high rates worldwide, and the COVID-19 pandemic has created further setbacks to providing them with the healthcare they need,” Banerjee said. “If we wish to see different results, we must do things differently.”
The WHO, the UN children’s agency UNICEF and the UN Population Fund UNFPA called for affordable health care and more medical staff to ensure that more mothers and their children survive. In addition, access to medicines, clean water and electricity must be guaranteed.
According to the report, the Covid-19 pandemic, rising poverty rates and humanitarian crises have increased the pressure on health systems in recent years.
Out of 100 countries surveyed, only a tenth have enough money to implement their maternal and newborn health plans, the report said. Care in conflict countries and in parts of Africa and Asia is particularly bad. Maternal and neonatal mortality rates are highest in sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia, according to the report.
The UN organizations also emphasized the need to fight against prejudice and injustice against women to improve the health of mothers and their babies. Globally, just some 60% of all girls and women have the ability to make their own decisions about their sexual and reproductive health.
GNA