One of the Millennium Development Goals is to reduce maternal mortality ratios by three quarters by 2015. While there has been progress, the numbers remain very high, with more than 500,000 women dying every year as a result of complications during pregnancy and childbirth. Half of which in sub-Saharan Africa and a third in South Asia. In developing countries, a woman’s lifetime risk of maternal death is 1 in 76, compared with 1 in 8,000 in industrialized countries. In sub-Saharan Africa, one woman in every 22 dies because of childbirth.
lifetime risk of maternal death
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More statistics on maternal mortality.
