Every minute a maternal death occurs

• April 27, 2024

In Latin America and the Caribbean, the highest fertility rate of girls between 13 and 15 years of age occurs, but it is also the region where more Maternal Deaths (MM) occur than five times the world average, said the deputy director. of the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), Socorro Gross.

Before 70 women leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean, who started the Regional Conference of Women Leaders, the official said that "We are used to maternal death" and we lost the possibility of asking ourselves what is the acceptable figure.

The answer is that maternal death is an ethical, human rights and development debt because when we have the technology that allows millions of transactions in seconds from one end of the world to the other, there is no excuse for every minute a woman to die. reasons related to her motherhood, said the regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Marcela Suazo.

In this Conference, held within the framework ofInternational Day of Action for Women's Health , the results are expected to be presented at the next most important international meeting on the subject of maternal death "Women Deliver," Suazo said.

Millennium Development Goals

Speaking of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) said that the number 5, dedicated to improving maternal health, is precisely the most lagging, to such a degree that Latin America and the Caribbean will not meet the goal agreed upon by 2015 .

These are only a part of the results that the Heads of States will make known, in the report of their achievements in the MDG goals, said Suazo.

He added that 99% of cases of MM occur in developing countries as a reflection of inequities, of different values ​​of population groups according to their skin color, where they are born and where they live.

According to a study conducted in Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and Colombia, Suazo explained, poverty, lack of education, early marriage and limited access to contraceptive use are the main reasons for these deaths among the mothers. The poor are three times more likely to die, he said.

Breaking the silence and adding the voices of women, in favor of their peers is the central objective of this meeting convened by the regional Working Group created in 1998 with the purpose of reducing the GM.

For its part, the Vice Minister of Women and Social Development of Peru, Norma Añaños, recalled that a quarter of maternal deaths that occur today could avoid only prevent unwanted pregnancies.

The millions are not required to save women's lives, said Añaños, every dollar invested in family planning has benefits as high as investing $ 31 in health, water supply, education and housing, he said.

The women leaders of Bolivia, Brazil, El Salvador, Ecuador, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Haiti, Mexico, Paraguay and Peru closed the work of the Conference with the reading of the declaration and the commitments assumed by them.
 

With information from CIMAC