Over 8,000 women die from pregnancy, childbirth in Caribbean, Latin America each year – PAHO

…calls for action, investment, as 90% are preventable

In Latin America and the Caribbean, nearly 8,400 women die each year due to complications related to pregnancy and childbirth, showing disproportionate impact on poor women and those from minority ethnic backgrounds.
What has been more disturbing is that approximately 9 out of 10 of these deaths are preventable. This was revealed at the 76th World Health Assembly, taking place this week.
This week, a progress report on the Global Strategy for Women’s Children’s and Adolescents’ Health (2016-2030) was presented, urging countries to step-up investment in family planning interventions and routine postnatal care for women and newborns, all in a bid to reduce maternal and child mortality.
The report outlined that in most regions of the world – with the exception of Southeast Asia – maternal and child mortality rates have either stagnated or increased. The majority of these deaths are preventable, and results from lack of access to sexual and reproductive health services, as well as to prenatal care.
During the discussion, countries of the Americas highlighted the importance of recovering progress towards maternal mortality following the COVID-19 pandemic, with a particular focus on women from vulnerable populations as well as on strengthening mental health initiatives for adolescents.
The WHO’s Global Strategy provides countries with a roadmap to end preventable maternal, newborn and child deaths, including stillbirths, by 2030, as well as to improve their overall health and well-being.
Data from the World Bank has shown that maternal mortality ratio in Guyana has improved from 231 in 2000 to 169 in 2017. Maternal mortality ratio is the number of women who die from pregnancy-related causes, while pregnant or within 42 days of pregnancy termination, per 100,000 live births.
In Guyana, approximately 14,000 pregnancies are reported yearly. One target under Sustainable Development Goal 3 is to reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 births, with no country having a maternal mortality rate of more than twice the global average.
Countries from the region were also presented the chance to highlight other areas which are affecting their populations. Over the past decades, climate change has led to a rise in extreme weather events, such as hurricanes and floods, as well as an increase in infectious and vector-borne diseases. This is of particular concern to small island developing states (SIDS) of the Caribbean, which are on the frontlines of climate change impact in the Region, yet contribute a comparatively minute percentage to greenhouse gas emissions, a main driver of global warming.
During the roundtable, participants highlighted that health should be a powerful argument to advance the call for action in response to climate change in the run-up to COP28.