Global Maternal Mortality - Infographic Stud

The world has changed, but not yet for the best, especially for women. Though the condition is now much better than it was centuries ago, we are still far from our goal of equality between men and women. There is absolutely no reason for women to die at the rate they are dying today.

Childbirth is taxing for the woman’s body, but in the last century, many more women died while giving birth. Pregnant women and mothers are at high risk of dying for bearing their children, but no one is being accountable or at least made to atone for this unfortunate situation.

Maternal mortality is one of the plagues that haunted women in the past. While this is no longer a major problem in most countries today, there are many rich nations that have shockingly high maternal mortality rates. Sierra Leone in West Africa experiences the highest maternal mortality rate with 1,360 deaths per 100,000 while Finland, Iceland, Poland, and Greece are the lowest with 3 deaths per 100,000.

Many nations, even wealthy countries, recently have high maternal mortality rates. The highest was Sierra Leone at 1,360 per 100, 000 deaths. Afghanistan was the highest in Asia at 396 per 100, 000. The U.S. was in 64th place at 26 per 100, 000. Twenty-five of the bottom nations with the highest maternal mortality rates is in Africa.

As the gaps in maternal mortality data not showing any change, an increasing birth equality movement is set on stage. Several factors seem to have a significant impact on the health of mothers and their babies including racism, poverty, as well as their social and economic status. Women continue to die with health-related issues as the leading cause, particularly heart attack due to age and obesity.

In the U.S., more and more women die with black women dying at three times higher than white women. Mothers are at risk of pregnancy-related deaths, but most of them are preventable. The common causes include medical conditions associated with pregnancy, the age at which women give birth, and hospitals lacking standardized protocols.

The lack of access to prenatal care is another critical factor that leads to pregnancy-related death. But the risk does not end after pregnancy. Certain post-pregnancy complications such as hemorrhages and blood clots are potentially fatal and may lead to death. In fact, women are 45% more likely to die at the end of pregnancy to six weeks after.

Domestic violence is another factor that can threaten the life of a pregnant woman. It can harm a woman’s maternal and neonatal health by causing hemorrhage, trauma, miscarriage, stillbirths, premature labor, and of course, death.

There is a link between violence from an intimate partner and maternal mortality as some women suffer from violent death during labor or while pregnant. An alarming rate of women shows they are the unfortunate victim of violence caused by their intimate partner.

Angola has the highest rate of violence against women at 78% while Canada is lowest at 6%. The U.S. is at 36%, only 2% better compared to North Korea at 38%. In the 13 countries with available data, 50% of women experienced violence from their partners.

As for the rest of the world, the data is unavailable, indicating that many women do not report any cases of domestic violence because of fear and feeling of helplessness or the fact that it is accepted in their society.

In the rest of this infographic, you will understand the devastating effect of domestic violence and other factors on women’s health.