According to the United Nations, fewer and fewer mothers worldwide die shortly before, during or after childbirth. Child mortality is also falling. A recent report from the Unicef Children's Fund and the World Health Organization (WHO) show that mortality rates have reached new lows. Thus, since the year 2000, children's deaths have fallen by almost half, those of mothers by more than a third.
Still, every five seconds, a pregnant woman or child dies somewhere in the world. According to the report, in 2018, 6.2 million children under the age of 15 lost their lives for the most preventable reasons, of which 5.3 million were younger than five years. Around 295,000 women died in 2017 from complications during pregnancy or childbirth - that is, about two out of every thousand pregnancies or deliveries ended with the death of the mother.
For children, the risk of death in the first month after birth is particularly high, especially if they were born too premature, too small or with congenital body defects, if there were complications at birth or if the babies have caught an infection. Of the babies who do not survive their first month, around one third die on the day of birth.
Not all expectant mothers have the same opportunities
According to the report, the chances of survival for mothers and children are very unevenly distributed: they are significantly worse in sub-Saharan Africa than in other parts of the world. 80 percent of maternal and child deaths were recorded in southern Africa and southern Asia.
For women in sub-Saharan Africa, it is 50 times more dangerous to have a child than to women in developed countries, according to the report. In addition, their children are ten times as likely to die. In 2018, according to the report, one in 13 children under the age of five died in southern Africa. By comparison, in Europe, on average, one in every 196 children dies before their fifth birthday, in Germany it is one of 250 children born alive.
In the past decades, however, it has been possible to significantly reduce child and maternal mortality. Between 1990 and 2018, deaths among children under the age of 15 dropped 56 percent from 14.2 million to 6.2 million. The greatest progress was made by East Asian and Southeast Asian countries.
The progress is too slow
Worldwide, the decline in maternal and infant mortality is mainly due to better medical care during pregnancy, increased childbirth safety and access to antibiotics.
"In countries where there is reliable, affordable, high-quality health care for all, women and babies can survive and develop well," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
However, according to the UN, progress is still too slow to reach the UN's development goals of reducing child and maternal mortality by 2030.
