Maternal Mortality Rates Around the World

Most everyone can agree that a woman dying during pregnancy, during childbirth or within the first six weeks after giving birth is a tragedy that seems modern medicine should be able to avert, 350,000 to 500,000 women the world over are doing just that--dying during these time periods. These deaths are recorded as maternal deaths and the numbers of maternal deaths constitute the maternal mortality rate.

Maternal Mortality Rate Statistics

While the exact numbers vary from report to report, dependent on which entity is performing the analysis and the accuracy of the data compiled, the statistics still show that an alarming number of women are dying from a condition which isn't a disease in and of itself, but from various complicating factors.

A study conducted by a team of researchers from the Institute for Health Metrics at the University of Washington published the results of a compilation of 20 years of data from 181 countries throughout the world. This study was published in the British medical journal, The Lancet, April 10, 2010.

Maternal Mortality Rates by Country

The numbers presented below are the number of women per 100,000 pregnant women who have died during the "maternal period"--during pregnancy, during childbirth, or the first six weeks following childbirth.

Central African Republic, Mozambique and Malawi: 1,100

Laos and Zambia: 650

Niger and Kenya: 590

Nepal and India: 540

Indonesia and Bhutan: 380

Yemen, Maldives and Bangladesh: 350

Egypt and the Philippines: 170

Saint Kitts and Nevis, Turkey: 130

Jamaica and Vietnam: 95

Venezuela and Sri Lanka: 60

China and Mexico: 55

Thailand and Russia: 44

Armenia and Cape Verde: 35

Belarus and South Korea: 20

Qatar, France and Denmark: 10

Poland, Japan, Germany, United States: 8

Israel, Kuwait, Sweden, Switzerland: 5

Granada and Greece: 1

These statistics were compiled from data for the period 1985 to 1999 by Unicef and reported at NationMaster.com

Maternal Mortality Rates by State

The information here is provided mostly for comparative purposes. The study/table from which these figures were taken are from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) for the years 1999-2004 and reflects an overall maternal mortality rate in the U.S. of 13.6/100,000.

District of Columbia: 34.9

Georgia: 20.5

New Mexico: 16.9

Maryland: 16.5

New York: 16.0

Louisiana : 15.9

Mississippi: 15.2

Arkansas: 14.6

Delaware and Michigan: 13.6

Florida: 13.1

Nebraska: 12.6

Oklahoma: 12.3

Tennessee: 11.7

North Carolina: 11.4

New Jersey and California: 11.3

West Virginia: 11.2

South Carolina and Idaho: 11.1

Colorado: 11.0

North Dakota: 10.7

Missouri and Montana: 10.5

New Hampshire and Nevada: 10.4

The remainder of the states are in single digits with Vermont ranking second lowest at 2.6 and Maine lowest of all at 1.2.

Factors to Consider

There are numerous factors affecting the maternal mortality rate not only within the United States but around the world. Access to adequate health care must certainly be near the top of the list, but also in some countries day-to-day living conditions including clean water and nutritional food compound the problem.

Race is a factor, even within the United States, where black women have a four times greater maternal mortality rate than non-black women.

The prevalence of diseases such as AIDS and other life-threatening conditions also affect a woman's health during and after pregnancy.

Cultural norms cannot be ruled out as important factors as to how women care for themselves and their unborn child during pregnancy.

The World Health Organization(WHO), the United Nations and UNICEF are among the groups which have been working to improve the maternal mortality rate statistics. The maternal mortality rate is one measure of the overall health status of a state or nation.

Sources: National Women's Law Center
NationMaster.com
The Lancet