Researchers are reporting a significant drop in the number of women dying from pregnancy and childbirth around the world, according to a New York Times article published this week.
The study, published in the medical journal Lancet, indicates that the number of maternal deaths dropped from 526,300 in 1980 to 342,900 in 2008. The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Washington and the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia and was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
“The overall message, for the first time in a generation, is one of persistent and welcome progress,” the journal’s editor, Dr. Richard Horton, wrote in a comment accompanying the article.
The study found that a combination of factors contributed to the drop, including lower pregnancy rates in some countries; higher income, which improves nutrition and access to health care; more education for women; and the increasing availability of skilled workers to help women give birth. Improvements in large countries like India and China in particular helped to drive down the overall death rates.
Still, more than 50 percent of all maternal deaths were concentrated in just six countries in 2008: India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Also, the study found, were it not for HIV, there would have been an average of just 281,500 maternal deaths worldwide in 2008 (about 61,400 fewer deaths.)
While the overall drop in the past 28 years is obviously good news, the study did reveal, however, that of 181 countries studied, only 23 are on track to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of a 75 percent decrease in maternal mortality ratio by 2015.
It’s worth noting that the Times article says the results of this study conflict with findings of an earlier study published in the Lancet in 2007. That study, conducted by researchers from UNICEF, Harvard, the World Bank, the World Health Organization and the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, found 535,900 maternal deaths in 2005. In other words, an increase in maternal deaths since 1980.
The World Health Organization still reports there are about half a million maternal deaths a year, but is expected to issue new statistics later this year. Let’s hope they reveal a downward trend.
Photo by mckaysavage via Flickr.