Causes of maternal death

A maternal death

A maternal death is something that has been given attention to in recent years. A report that gave data about maternal death between 1994 and 1996 forced authorities to give some consideration to improving care of women. That care relates to their condition before, during and after the pregnancy. Therefore, people who work in health facilitates are given new standards that they have to administer in order to cut down the number of women who die at childbirth.

Some conditions that can occur before and after birth are now considered with much more attention. Nowadays, health workers should be aware of post-natal and anti-natal depression, diarrhea, ectopic pregnancy. According to statistics, 268 women died from causes that could be prevented if closer attention was given to women in pregnancy. Women that have conditions such as psychiatric disorders, addiction and self-harm liability should be monitored with more attention after the delivery. Reports also included some patterns that appeared in the maternal death, and they included increased stress in older women who decide on having children, as well as suggestion that African American women are at higher risk because they don’t do enough check ups at clinics and have a poor knowledge of English language.

Main causes of death at childbirth

Clotting in the blood or medically known as thromboembolism is the main cause of death at childbirth. Numbers say that 48 women died of blood clotting, 20 died from hypertension, 17 from amniotic fluid embolism and a little less from ectopic pregnancies and infections caused by sepsis. Some causes that directly lead to death include heart diseases, epilepsy, and psychiatric problems.

When we add up the number of deaths at childbirth, we have number of deaths that can be nothing else but considered with shock and worry. Every year, 585,000 women die at childbirth. The WHO is fighting hard to provide the same conditions for all the women around the world and it is said that additional 3$ that every person could give, can prevent many deaths and complications that appear during pregnancy. A number of women who, after a delivery, have long term conditions that occur in pregnancy exceeds 50 million. Conditions such as infertility or incontinence can be treated with a little success, so it is important to prevent them at the beginning. Parts of the world that are mostly affected by maternal deaths are Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. The biggest number of death, 90%, occurs there and less than 1% occurs in the developed part of world. The WHO organisation states that, apart from maternal death, the mortality rate is seven times bigger in countries in transition also.