Maternal Mortality: Status, Progress, and Outlook

Approximately 300,000 mothers die each year during pregnancy, childbirth, and the six weeks of postpartum period—so-called maternal deaths. The maternal mortality rate, the deaths per 100,000 live births, is highest in Sub-Saharan Africa, especially in rural and poor populations with inadequate access to high-quality obstetric care and also emergency care such as a cesarean section. The main causes of maternal mortality are bleeding before and after birth (27% of deaths), hypertensive diseases (14%), sepsis (11%), and abortions (miscarriages and terminations of pregnancy (8%), embolism (3%) and other direct causes (10%). International strategies such as improved access to midwifery care as well as surgical emergency care have reduced maternal mortality by almost 50% in the last 15 years, but there is still much to do, particularly in improving the quality of care.