- Underlying conditions that can be aggravated by pregnancy have also been identified to be the leading causes of maternal deaths.
- The UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target is 3.1 to reduce maternal mortality to less than 70 maternal deaths.
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A woman dies every two minutes due to pregnancy or childbirth, the United Nations has said.
The UN agencies in their latest report, ‘Trends in maternal mortality’ have raised alarm that maternal deaths have either increased or stagnated in nearly all regions of the world in recent years.
The devastating situation has been attributed to severe bleeding, high blood pressure, pregnancy-related infections and complications from unsafe abortion.
"What is more concerning is that the causes of death are all largely preventable and treatable with access to high-quality and respectful healthcare," the report read.
Underlying conditions that can be aggravated by pregnancy (such as HIV/AIDS and malaria) have also been identified to be the leading causes of maternal deaths.
“No mother should have to fear for her life while bringing a baby into the world, especially when the knowledge and tools to treat common complications exist,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said.
“Equity in healthcare gives every mother, no matter who they are or where they are, a fair chance at a safe delivery and a healthy future with their family,” she added.
Even though local estimates place the Maternal Mortality Rate(MMR) at 342 per 100,000 live births in 2017, the report by the UN agencies lists Kenya among 10 countries with very high MMR at 530 per 100,000 live births.
The report, which tracks maternal deaths nationally, regionally and globally shows there were an estimated 287,000 maternal deaths worldwide in 2020.
This was a slight decrease from 309,000 in 2016.
The proportion of pregnant women who have skilled attendance at birth increased from 69.1 per cent in 2015 to 80.6 per cent in 2019 against the target of having 90 per cent of births conducted by skilled attendants.
The UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target is 3.1 to reduce maternal mortality to less than 70 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births by 2030.
The report notes that while some significant progress in reducing maternal deaths has been made between 2000 and 2015, gains largely stalled, or in some cases even reversed, after this point.