UNITED NATIONS: A woman dies during pregnancy or childbirth every two minutes, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) has warned on Mother’s Day, an annual moment for mothers to receive thanks and recognition for all they do.
According to recently released data, a woman dies from pregnancy or childbirth every two minutes, with the vast majority of these deaths due to preventable causes like bleeding and infection, the UN reproductive health agency said.
What’s worse, solutions to these problems have existed for decades; but they require immediate investment in family planning and for the world to address its steep shortage of midwives, who UNFPA reports could prevent an estimated two thirds of all maternal and newborn deaths. “We have the tools, knowledge and resources to end preventable maternal deaths; what we need now is the political will,” UNFPA Executive Director Natalia Kanem said. Between 2000 and 2015, global maternal mortality decreased by more than a third, but the rate of reduction has since stagnated across several regions and even reversed course in others, UNFPA reported.
This has resulted in a staggering 287,000 maternal deaths in 2020 – a death toll that would dominate headlines if it was tied to a natural disaster or other crisis, the agency showed.
“It is unacceptable that so many women continue to die needlessly in pregnancy and childbirth. Over 280,000 fatalities in a single year is unconscionable,” the UNFPA chief said. “We can and must do better.”
As often as not, women and girls do not get to make the decision to become pregnant, UNFPA said.
An alarming four in ten partnered women across 68 countries were unable to exert agency when it came to healthcare, sex or contraceptives. Meanwhile, some data suggests rape-related pregnancies occur at least as frequently as pregnancies arising from consensual sex.
These factors and others drive a neglected global crisis, in which almost half of all pregnancies around the world are unintended, leading to stark negative consequences for many of those affected, the agency said.
Complications from pregnancy and childbirth can be deadly, especially for adolescents and girls, UNFPA said, noting that an estimated half a million births were to girls aged 10-14 in 2021, making hundreds of thousands mothers while still in childhood.
The staggering number of unintended pregnancies represents a global failure to uphold women and girls’ basic human rights,” Ms. Kanem said.
In November 2022, the global population hit eight billion. While some met this news with admiration for the advances in health care and poverty reduction that have led to this landmark moment, others wrung their hands, worried about how there are “too many” or “too few” people on earth, according to UNFPA.
This line of thinking implicitly places women’s bodies in a position to be solutions to the supposed problem of population expansion – a dangerous idea. Historically, this reasoning has led to coercive policies designed to influence women’s fertility, which risk their rights while dismissing their desires, the agency said. –Agencies
