WHO 's Campaign To Reduce Childbirth-Related Deaths in Develop-
ing Countries
----------------------------------------------------------------
WHO Launches Training Campaign To Reduce Number of Childbirth-
Related Deaths in Developing Countries [Sep 30, 2004]
The World Health Organization in Nairobi, Kenya, on Wednesday
launched a training campaign to help reduce the number of child-
birth- and abortion-related deaths among women in developing
countries, WHO estimates that every minute of the day, one woman
in a developing country dies from giving birth and that maternal
deaths are underreported by as much as 50%, with 62 countries
recording no data at all. WHO blamed the crisis on "unavailable,
inaccessible or poor quality care," saying that most of the
deaths are preventable, even in the poorest areas. "Less than
10% of health resources in Africa are well-utilized, essentially
because of lack of planning, choosing wrong priorities and lack
of political will." WHO said it needs an extra US$ 10 million to
train health care workers and local leaders in countries with
high maternal mortality rates. WHO on Wednesday also launched a
new manual aimed at teaching health care providers ways to pre-
vent childbirth-related deaths even in the poorest conditions
and how to gather better data on these deaths. The campaign,
which involves more than 12 international and regional agencies,
will focus on 20 high-priority countries.
Statistics, Reaction
United Nations data shows that out of every 100,000 births, 830
mothers die in Africa, 330 die in Asia and 190 die in Latin
America and the Caribbean, compared with only 20 deaths per
100,000 births in the developed world. In some developing re-
gions, a woman has a one in 16 chance of dying during pregnancy
and childbirth, compared with a one in 2,800 risk for a woman in
a developed country, according to WHO. Without policies to re-
verse the current situation, a "tragedy" will result in Africa.
"If we do nothing to reverse the trend in maternal and newborn
mortality in Africa, over the next 10 years, there will be at
least 2.5 million maternal deaths, 49 million maternal disabili-
ties, resulting to 7.5 million child deaths and 45 billion dol-
lars in productivity loss." The epidemic is invisible. Because
governments cannot tell how many women die, they do not realize
what the problems are and no steps are taken to address this
problem or alleviate the suffering of these women. In addition,
WHO says that about one million children are "left motherless"
each year, and these children are 10 times as likely to die dur-
ing childhood as children whose mothers are living.
The WHO manual is downloadable at following web site as Adobe PDF
file (150 pp. 2.61 MB!):
http://www.who.int/reproductive-health/publications/btn/btn.pdf