This is Doug Johnson with the VOA Special English DevelopmentReport.
A study finds that one out of sixteen women in Africa will dieduring pregnancy or childbirth. The rate for industrial countries isone out of almost three-thousand women. Better health care wouldsave many lives.
The findings are in a report released this month by three UnitedNations agencies. The World Health Organization joined with the U-NChildren’s Fund and the U-N Population Fund. Researchers estimatethat more than half a million women died during pregnancy orchildbirth in two-thousand. They say ninety-five percent of thesedeaths were in Africa and Asia.
India had the highest number of maternal deaths,one-hundred-thirty-six-thousand. Pakistan and Afghanistan each hadover twenty-thousand.
But the death rate was highest in Africa. Nearly forty-thousandwomen died in Nigeria. The Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopiaeach had almost twenty-five-thousand deaths.
Carol Bellamy heads the U-N Children’s Fund. She says the numbersshow an urgent need to improve reproductive health care for women.In addition, Mizz Bellamy says family planning programs would helpmake sure pregnancies are wanted and spread out over time.
Experts say many deaths could be avoided if more women gave birthwith the help of skilled health workers. Currently, only aboutfifty-eight percent of women in developing nations have a trainedhealth worker present during birth.
The new report says Latin America had four percent of thematernal deaths in two-thousand. Researchers say the rate is lowbecause skilled health workers assist most women.
The findings show that Southeast Asia and Northern Africa had thegreatest improvement in recent years in the use of skilled help. Butin sub-Saharan Africa, less than half of women get such care duringchildbirth.
Carol Bellamy says pregnant women also must be able to receiveemergency medical care if problems develop. Often, even iflife-saving care exists, women may lack money, or a way to reach amedical center, or approval from their husbands.
World leaders have agreed to try to reduce maternal death ratesby seventy-five percent over the next twelve years. This promise ispart of the U-N Millennium Development Goals.
This VOA Special English Development Report was written by JillMoss. I’m Doug Johnson.