Avoidably high maternal death rates

NAIROBI, Oct. 21, 2003 (IRIN) — Women have a one-in-30 chance of dying in childbirth in northern Sudan, with higher rates in areas of the south, according to the UN.

While data was available for the north, it was nonexistent in the south due to the absence of a government there to collect information centrally, Dr Michaleen Richer of the UN Children’s Fund told IRIN. Some localised studies had been done, producing death rates of between 400 and 800 deaths per 100,000 births, she said, but they had been small-scale, done on an ad hoc basis, and were therefore not representative.

In Sweden, reckoned to have one of the best health-care systems in the world, only two out of every 100,000 births result in death.

One of the main ways of reducing maternal mortality was the presence of skilled medical personnel at births, who were often absent in Sudan, said Richer.

The ability to refer complications to hospitals or medical facilities was also key to preventing deaths, she said. But with only 12 hospitals in southern Sudan and an almost total absence of roads or vehicles to access them, getting there was impossible.

A World Bank survey shows that between 1990 and 1999, an average of only 57 percent of births were attended each year in northern Sudan, with no improvements in attendance over the course of the decade. In the south, just 6 percent were attended by either a doctor or mid-wife.

Afghanistan and Sierra Leone have the worst maternal death rates in the world with a one-in-six chance of death during childbirth, according to the UN. Angola, Malawi, Niger, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda follow close behind.

Women in sub-Saharan Africa are 175 times more likely to die in childbirth than women in developing countries, according to the UN.