CONTENTS
HIGHLIGHTS
September, 1997 |
Women's Lives At Risk In developing countries each year an estimated 585,000 women die from complications of pregnancy, childbirth, and unsafe abortion—about one every minute (295). Nearly all of these deaths could be prevented (148, 209, 289). Pregnancy-related complications cause one-quarter to one-half of deaths among women of reproductive age in developing countries compared with less than 1% in the US. In some developing countries pregnancy-related complications are the leading cause of death for reproductive-age women (76, 233, 285). On average, in developing countries a pregnancy is 18 times more likely to end in the woman's death than in developed countries (295). Also, many thousands of women in developing countries suffer serious illnesses and disabilities, including chronic pelvic pain, pelvic inflammatory disease, incontinence, and infertility, caused by pregnancy or its complications (96, 166). The risk associated with each pregnancy and delivery is far higher for women in developing countries because good health care is far less available than in developed countries. Moreover, women in developing countries generally bear more children and thus face the risk of maternal death or illness more often. In some developing regions a woman's risk of dying due to maternal causes over the course of her life is as much as 300 times greater than the risk faced by the average woman in a developed country (285, 295). For example, a woman in Eastern Africa faces the highest risk of maternal death—1 in 12—compared with only 1 in 3,700 for a woman in North America (see Table 1). No other health indicator varies so dramatically between developed and developing countries (171, 229, 233, 295). As well as a tragedy for women themselves, maternal mortality and morbidity take a toll on families and communities (55, 111, 186, 245, 258, 285). Women who die during their childbearing years usually leave at least two children (96, 157). Also, mothers in nearly all developing societies devote 12 to 15 hours of daily labor to meeting household needs for food, water, and fuel as well as caring for children. Thus, when mothers die, families lose their primary caregiver and often a family wage earner as well. Where mothers are heads of household, as is often the case in cities world-wide and in parts of rural Africa, a mother's death means the loss of the primary wage earner (58). |