A woman dies needlessly every 2 minutes due to pregnancy or childbirth, according to a new UN report. Here’s why

“Pregnancy should be a time of great hope and a positive experience for all women, but tragically it is still a dangerous experience for millions of people around the world who do not have access to quality and respectful health care,” the Director General of the Organization World Health Tedros Adhanom. Ghebreyesus said in a news release about the report, released on Friday.

Heavy bleeding, high blood pressure, pregnancy-related infections, complications from unsafe abortions, and medical conditions that may worsen due to pregnancy (such as HIV/AIDS and malaria) are the leading causes of maternal death, according to the report. All of these conditions are “preventable and treatable with access to quality and respectful health care,” the authors say.

Maternal mortality increased in Europe and North America from 2016 to 2020, by 17% and 15% respectively, according to the report. Rates stagnated in four regions, and declined in two others-Australia and New Zealand, and Central and South Asia-by 35% and 16%, respectively, during the same period.

The pandemic may have affected those numbers, the authors wrote, noting that COVID increases the risk of pregnancy complications. He advocates vaccination for pregnant women and women planning to become pregnant.

Worldwide, there were an estimated 287,000 maternal deaths in 2020, down from an estimated 309,000 in 2016. While gains in maternal mortality reductions were made from 2000 to 2015, these gains largely stopped, or even reversed, after the report. .

Maternal deaths tend to be concentrated in the poorest countries, and in areas experiencing conflict. By 2020, an estimated 70% of global maternal deaths will occur in sub-Saharan Africa. And in countries facing severe humanitarian crises, the maternal mortality rate is more than twice the world average, the authors write.