posts: 24833

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    "id": "wp-24833",
    "slug": "untitled-reusable-block-24",
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                        "text": "830 women die from pregnancy-related causes every day.{ref}The World Health Organization estimates that in 2015, there were 302,680 maternal deaths globally. Averaged over the year, this would be equal to around 830 maternal deaths per day [302,680 / 365 = 830].{/ref} In 2015, 302,700 women in the world ",
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                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/how-many-women-die-in-childbirth",
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                                "text": "died as a result",
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                        "text": " of pregnancy or childbirth.",
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                        "text": "For many aspects in global development it is true that the world made a lot of progress in the past and we know that we can make a lot of progress still. We\u2019ve shown this before for child mortality and it is true for maternal health too: maternal health is much better than the past; it\u2019s still awful today; and we can do much better.",
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                        "text": "In the visualization here we compare three scenarios:",
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                                        "text": "How many mothers would die today if we still had the very poor health of the past?",
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                                "text": " Even the countries with the best maternal health today had very high maternal mortality rates in the past. In Sweden and Finland in 1800, for example, around ",
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                            {
                                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/maternal-mortality?tab=chart&country=FIN~SWE",
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                                        "text": "900 mothers died",
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                                "text": " for every 100,000 live births [nearly 1-in-100].{ref}Here we assume a global maternal mortality rate of 900 per 100,000 live births in 2015. The UN estimates there were around ",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/annual-number-of-births-by-world-region",
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                                        "text": "140 million births",
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                                "text": " in 2015. This works out at around 1.26 million maternal deaths [140 million / [900 / 100,000] = 1.26 million].{/ref} In today\u2019s world where ",
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                            {
                                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/annual-number-of-births-by-world-region",
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                                        "text": "140 million",
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                            {
                                "text": " women give birth each year this would mean that 1.26 million would die.",
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                                        "text": "The world today",
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                                ],
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                            },
                            {
                                "text": ": the actual ",
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                            {
                                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/how-many-women-die-in-childbirth",
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "number of women that died",
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                                "text": " from pregnancy-related causes in 2015 was 302,700.\u00a0",
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                                "children": [
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                                        "text": "If all regions had the health of today\u2019s best-off countries",
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                                "text": ": Today the world region with the lowest maternal mortality is the European Union, where ",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/maternal-mortality?tab=chart&country=~European+Union",
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "8 women die per 100,000",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
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                            },
                            {
                                "text": " live births. In today\u2019s world where ",
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                            },
                            {
                                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/annual-number-of-births-by-world-region",
                                "children": [
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                                        "text": "140 million",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
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                            },
                            {
                                "text": " women give birth each year, if all countries had this level of maternal mortality, 11,000 would die.{ref}Here we assume a global maternal mortality rate of 8 per 100,000 live births in 2015. The UN estimates there were around 140 million births in 2015. This works out at around 11,000 maternal deaths [140 million / [8 / 100,000] = 11,000].{/ref}",
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                        "text": "We can see how much global maternal health is improved: if we still had the living standards of 1800, around 1.26 million women would die from pregnancy every year. Almost one million more women would die each year.",
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                        "text": "But we also see how far we could go. If all regions achieved the healthcare and living standards of the EU very few women would die. Almost 300,000 fewer deaths ; a reduction of over 95%. If we think of it in this way, almost all of the world\u2019s maternal deaths are preventable with adequate ",
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                    },
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                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/pregnant-women-receiving-prenatal-care",
                        "children": [
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                                "text": "maternal care",
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                            }
                        ],
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                    },
                    {
                        "text": ", ",
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                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/maternal-mortality#what-share-of-births-are-attended-by-health-staff",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "safe deliveries",
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                        ],
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                    {
                        "text": ", good ",
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                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/micronutrient-deficiency",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "nutrition",
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                        ],
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                    },
                    {
                        "text": " and ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/water-and-sanitation",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "hygiene and sanitation",
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                        "text": ".{ref}This of course opens up a much larger question of how many deaths are really preventable i.e. how low could maternal mortality really go. We base our scenario here on the EU-average rate, but we know some countries ",
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                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/maternal-mortality?time=1991..2015&country=European%20Union+FIN+SWE",
                        "children": [
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                                "text": "have an even lower rate",
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                        "text": ": Finland has a rate of 3 per 100,000 live births; and Sweden has a rate of 4. It\u2019s unclear how attainable this is for all countries, or whether this rate could fall even further.{/ref} This is also the ",
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                    {
                        "url": "https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/maternal-mortality",
                        "children": [
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                                "text": "message",
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                    {
                        "text": " of the World Health Organization: \u201cEvery day, approximately 830 women die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth.\"",
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                        "text": "That most of the world\u2019s maternal deaths could be prevented also becomes clear when we consider that 95% occur ",
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                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/maternal-deaths-by-income-group",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "in low and lower-middle income",
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                        ],
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                    {
                        "text": " countries. Maternal mortality is much more common in poorer countries.",
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                        "text": "It's unacceptable that a woman in Sierra Leone is ",
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                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/maternal-mortality?tab=chart&time=latest&country=SLE~SWE~FIN",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "300 to 400 times more likely",
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                            }
                        ],
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                    },
                    {
                        "text": " to die during pregnancy or childbirth than a woman in Sweden or Finland, and we know it is possible to prevent these deaths.",
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                        "text": "If we can make maternal deaths as rare as they are in the healthiest countries in the world we can save almost 300,000 mothers each year.",
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        ],
        "type": "article",
        "title": "If we can make maternal deaths as rare as they are in the healthiest countries we can save almost 300,000 mothers each year",
        "authors": [
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        ],
        "dateline": "September 20, 2019",
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    "createdAt": "2019-09-20T11:12:28.000Z",
    "published": false,
    "updatedAt": "2021-12-16T16:53:02.000Z",
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    "publishedAt": "2019-09-20T10:12:23.000Z",
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