Study Finds Drop in Deaths of Mothers in Developing World
13 April 2010
A 2008 photo of a pregnant woman being examined at an AIDS care training and support program in White River Junction, South Africa
This is the VOA Special English Health Report.
A new study says fewer women in developing nations are dying of pregnancy-related causes. Researchers estimated how many mothers died during or soon after childbirth in one hundred eighty-one countries. They found a drop of more than thirty-five percent worldwide in the past thirty years.
By their count, the number fell from more than a half-million in nineteen eighty to about three hundred forty-three thousand in two thousand eight. That year, about two hundred fifty mothers died for every one hundred thousand live births worldwide.
The researchers say the maternal death rate has been falling almost one and a half percent a year since nineteen ninety. Earlier reports suggested little change between nineteen eighty and nineteen ninety, but the new study disputes that.
The researchers used government records, medical records, surveys and other information. They developed new methods to get what they say are the best estimates yet for almost every country.
They say the progress is a result of greater efforts to reduce maternal deaths.
Christopher Murray at the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle led the study. He says more education of women in developing countries has helped lower maternal death rates. More of them are giving birth in hospitals.
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