In Nigeria today, it’s alarming the rate at which women die at childbirth, especially in rural areas. It has been likened to an airplane crashing daily. The urgency of fighting this national embarrassment as opposed to sweeping it under the carpet cannot be over emphasised. Generally, according to World Health Organisation (WHO), ‘Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia accounted for approximately 86 percent (254 000) of the estimated global maternal deaths in 2017. Sub-Saharan Africa alone accounted for roughly two-thirds (196 000) of maternal deaths, while Southern Asia accounted for nearly one-fifth (58 000).
WHO also notes that in 2017, according to the Fragile States Index, 15 countries of which Nigeria was also included were appraised as ‘very high alert’ or ‘high alert’ being a fragile state e.g South Sudan, Somalia, Central African Republic, Yemen, Syria, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Chad, Afghanistan, Iraq, Haiti, Guinea, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Ethiopia. These countries had maternal mortality rates (MMRs) in 2017 varying from 31 in Syria to 1150 in South Sudan.
Read more at: https://leadership.ng/rising-rate-of-maternal-mortality/