High maternal mortality rates due to inadequate services in Sudan

KHARTOUM, Sep 27, 2004 (IRIN) — Nearly half of all pregnant women in Sudan
deliver their children without the help of skilled birth attendants and as
a result many of them die in childbirth, the United Nations Population
Fund (UNFPA), said on Sunday.

“The mortality and morbidity rates among women in Sudan is among the
highest in the region,” Namal Hettiaratchy, UNFPA representative in Sudan,
said in a statement to mark the launch of the State of the World
Population Report 2004.

“The report revealed that many developing countries have incorporated
population concerns into their development and poverty reduction
strategies, established laws and policies to protect women’s rights and
integrated reproductive health services into primary health care [with]
improved facilities, training, and access,” Hettiaratchy said.

According to UNFPA, only 71 percent of pregnant women in Sudan receive
antenatal care, 57 percent of deliveries are attended by skilled providers
and only 13 percent receive postpartum care during the first six weeks
following delivery.

Coupled with low availability of antenatal services, only eight percent of
couples use any type of contraceptive, giving a contraceptive prevalence
rate that is far behind the regional and global averages; HIV/AIDS
prevalence rates among the general population range from 1.6 to 2.6
percent, UNFPA said.

Hettiaratchy said various government agencies and organisations had
started different initiatives to address population and reproductive
health concerns, including a national HIV/AIDS prevention and care
programme, but the situation remained challenging.

Last year, about 3,000 village midwives were trained, while 1,100 new
students were recruited for training in 38 schools all over Sudan in 2004.
To combat HIV/AIDS, the national prevention and care programme was being
implemented, but the remaining challenges needed to be addressed urgently,
UNFPA said.

It added that female genital mutilation was still a widespread practice in
Sudan, with a prevalence of 90 percent of married women aged 15 to 45 in
the north. But the percentage of women approving female circumcision had
declined from 79 percent in 1989/90 to 67 percent in 1999.

The report noted that every year, 529,000 women died from
pregnancy-related complications, with the majority coming from Africa.
According to UNFPA, a woman born in Africa had a much higher chance of
facing reproductive health problems than a woman from a developed country.

“Because it is poor women who are suffering and dying, maternal mortality
is a crisis that does not get the attention it deserves,” Thoraya Ahmed
Obaid, UNFPA Executive Director, said at the launch of the report in
London.

The report said the use of modern contraception by couples had globally
increased to 61 percent, but noted that more than 350 million couples
still lacked access to the services. In sub-Saharan Africa, the average
number of condoms for each man was only three per year.

The State of the World Population is an annual report that is published by
UNFPA. This year’s report, “The Cairo Consensus at Ten: Population,
Reproductive Health and the Global Effort to End Poverty,” examined
countries’ achievements and constraints in implementing the Cairo
consensus, including efforts to improve the quality and reach of
reproductive health programmes, promote women’s rights, improve maternal
and child health and strengthen HIV prevention efforts.

It notes that while countries had made real progress in carrying out the
20-year action plan of the 1994 International Conference on Population and
Development in Cairo, efforts to reduce maternal deaths, to prevent
HIV/AIDS, and to meet the needs of young people and the poor had been
hampered by a shortfall of funds pledged by donor governments.