Maternal Mortality Rate A Beautiful Way To Reduce

Maternal Mortality Rate is globally over 50 million. Women every year bear the brunt of grossly inadequate services for maternal health, and as a result, about half a million maternal deaths occur, mostly in developing countries. Roughly 9.5 million pregnant women suffer from various maternal morbidities and another 1.4 million survive ‘near miss events’ constituting severe life-threatening complications of pregnancy.

Maternal deaths are only part of the tragedy. For every woman who dies from pregnancy-related causes, at least 30 others suffer from maternal injuries, of which many are disabling and socially devastating.

What are the causes and outcomes of the maternal mortality rate?

Maternal deaths occur because of direct obstetric causes resulting from complications during pregnancy, labor, and the puerperium from interventions, omissions, or incorrect treatment. Maternal deaths may also occur from indirect causes resulting from previously existing diseases or diseases that develop during pregnancy and/or are aggravated by the physiological effects of pregnancy.

Effects Due to the Lack of Knowledge Causes Maternal Mortality Rate

The lack of understanding of gender determinants of health and well-being on the part of most governments, and in particular developing country governments, has also contributed to unnecessary maternal deaths through the introduction of inappropriate interventions, inadequate emphasis on the specific health needs of women, and the absence of simple but improved and humane maternal healthcare.

How to Solve Maternal Mortality Rate: 4 Best Ways to Improve their Health

First Step To Reduce Maternal Mortality Rate

Antenatal care (ANC) as presently practiced is inadequate for the upkeep of good maternal health of pregnant women. ANC is usually either health center-based or community-based; it is rarely available at home. Pregnant women travel to the place designated for ANC, which usually includes checks for edema (swelling of the ankle), the recording of blood pressure, and an eye examination for anemia, for which pregnant women receive a periodic supply of iron-folic acid tablets.

Hemoglobin estimation for the extent of anemia, determination of a pregnant woman’s blood group, and estimation of protein and sugar in the urine are not done at the community-level ANC checkups. Many of the government health workers do not have properly functioning BP machines.

Second Step To Reduce Maternal Mortality Rate

In many instances, ANC has been reduced to a minimal checklist of measurements, edema, etc., and the dispensing of iron tablets rather than a caring approach integrating mental health and nutritional counseling.

Third Step To Reduce Maternal Mortality Rate

Today, mental health counseling is not part of ANC. Pregnant women are also not given any advice on how to maximize nutrition in their food, or how to get a larger share of available nutrition in the family. The harmful effects of smoking on the fetus are not discussed during antenatal checkups. Concomitant diseases of pregnancy, such as pregnancy-induced hypertension and diabetes, are not screened or treated during antenatal checkups.

Fourth Step & Final Step To Reduce Maternal Mortality Rate

The unacceptable annual burden of half a million maternal deaths globally led to the inclusion of the improvement of maternal health as one of the Millennium Development Goals.

Adult Female Mortality VS Maternal Mortality Rate

Adult female and maternal deaths in developing and developed countries are still on the rise. In a statistic, there were 616 adult female deaths, yielding an adult female death rate of 0.90 per thousand women in the productive ages. Adult female deaths are identified as maternity-related occurring during pregnancy or within 42 days of the pregnancy’s end. Major causes of all reproductive-age deaths, including maternal deaths, happen due to infectious and parasitic diseases, followed by pregnancy, childbirth, and puerperium, particularly postpartum hemorrhage, and pre-eclampsia or eclampsia, accounting for 14% of all deaths.

However, the rank order of the major causes of maternal mortality observed for all reproductive-age deaths changes when the age group and socio-economic background of respondents are considered. This crucial period needs to be addressed, focusing on health behavior, in rural areas where the light of health education has not been reached. 

Causes of Adult Female Deaths by Age

At early reproductive ages below 30, women mostly die of pregnancy and childbirth. During this period, they mostly suffer from infectious and parasitic diseases, malnutrition, and external causes of morbidity, particularly due to self-harm, injury, and poisoning. However, the major causes of death and its rank order change at ages 30-39 and 40-49. Women aged 30-39, turn out to be the single largest cause of death, followed by pregnancy and childbirth. Most often, they die of the circulatory system and disease of the digestive system. On the other hand, women aged 40-49, die of neoplasm and respiratory system.

Causes of Adult Female Deaths by Socio-economic Status

Women’s reproductive-age deaths by socioeconomic status are very common in underdeveloped and developing countries alike. Poor women in slums and villages or remote areas, where they cannot get proper treatment and health education, die of some common reproductive diseases as stated above in the deaths by age. Women without any formal education in the reproductive ages mostly die of parasitic, respiratory, and childbirth issues. Lack of knowledge of pregnancy and childbirth increases the mortality rate.

In a statistic, it is found that these women and their husbands are illiterate or a little learning. However, contrary to expectations, there are relatively more maternal deaths among non-smokers than smokers. This is because there are more non-smokers than smokers among women, who die due to pregnancy and childbirth complications.

Timeliness in Receiving Maternal Care

Maternal deaths can be attributed to both medical and non-medical factors. Among non-medical factors, particular mention may be made of delays in arranging transport to reach a health facility, delays in seeking care, and delays in getting required care and treatment. Both the factors likely happen in the poor socio-economic zones, poor transportation, illiteracy, and lack of the proper knowledge and consciousness of pregnancy and childbirth care.

How to Reduce Mortality

Every government, particularly in underdeveloped and developing countries, should adopt a three-pronged strategy to reduce maternal deaths. They need to increase skilled birth attendance, gear up rapid expansion of emergency obstetric care, and rapid improvement of health facilities.

The skilled birth attendants are trained to be proficient in providing quality antenatal and post-natal care and in promptly identifying, managing, and referring complications in women and newborns. There needs to be an expansion of health facilities without remedial measures for functional improvement and a need to remove inequality in access to health including reproductive health care services. Their lifestyle can help to reduce the mortality rate. The pregnant mother needs a balanced diet plan, too