Our Focus
The Issue
©UNFPA/Naymuzzaman Khan
March 2023.
Progress has stalled
Globally, newborn deaths nearly halved between 1990 and 2017 and deaths of women due to complications in pregnancy and childbirth dropped by 44% between 1990 and 2015; but this progress has near-flatlined since 2016.
At the current rate of progress, over 60 countries, predominantly in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia, are off-track to meet the maternal, newborn and stillborn mortality reduction targets in the UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
Every seven seconds, a woman or a baby dies due to complications in pregnancy, childbirth or the first few weeks after birth.
©UNICEF/Pietrasik
A midwife examines a woman in Madhya Pradesh, India in 2009.
This is unacceptable.
The polycrises are hitting hard:
The combined effects of pandemics, climate change, conflicts and the cost-of-living increases are putting strains on health systems and disproportionally affecting women’s and children’s capacity to seek and receive the health care they need. The polycrises threaten to further slow progress.
Financing, both domestic and international, has been diverted to other priorities:
Since 2018, more than three-quarters of all conflict-affected and Sub-Saharan African countries report declining financing for maternal and newborn health . At the same time, the share of global health official development assistance (ODA) for MNCH decreased during the 2020-2021 COVID-19 response.
Inequities prevail:
Where a woman lives still strongly determines the quality of care she will receive before, during and after pregnancy, and her chances of survival. A woman in Sub-Saharan Africa has around a 130 times higher risk of dying from causes relating to pregnancy or childbirth than a woman in Europe or North America . Inequities also persist within a country, with a heavier burden on vulnerable and marginalized populations, including migrants and adolescent mothers.
To reverse this trend, we need urgent investment in maternal and newborn health.
Photo © 2019 WHO / Christine McNab A pregnant woman in Nadi, present for an antenatal check-up during a primary health care outreach session in Haryana State, India, in August 2019.
Pregnant women and newborns continue to die at unacceptably high rates worldwide, (...) If we wish to see different results, we must do things differently. More and smarter investments in primary healthcare are needed now so that every woman and baby - no matter where they live - has the best chance of health and survival.
– Anshu Banerjee, Director, Department for Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing, World Health Organization.
©WHO/Hugh Kinsella Cunningham.
Thress midwives at Kitatumba Hospital, Butembo, North Kivu, DRC.
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