Maternal death rates fall
Global maternal death rates have fallen by an average of 35 percent over the past 30 years, according to researchers. New findings published on Monday (12 April 2010) in the Lancet medical journal contradict the latest research by the World Health Organisation.
The WHO announced last May that mothers and newborn babies are no more likely to survive now than 20 years ago. But researchers at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in the United States claimed on Monday that there were 342,900 female deaths from pregnancy-related causes worldwide in 2008, down from 526,300 in 1980. They also noted that half of all such deaths happened in just six countries: India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.