Pregnancy: ‘300,000 women die in 2013’

Pregnancy: ‘300,000 women die in 2013’

The United Nations has said that no fewer than 300,000 women lost their lives to pregnancy complications and child birth related cases globally in 2013.

The UN Resident Coordinator/UNDP representative, Mr. Daouda Toure, said this during the regional presentation of the UN 2015 Millennium Development Goals on Monday in Lagos.

Toure, who was represented by Mrs. Colin Zamba, explained that considerable progress had been made on MDG across different countries and regions.

He said, “Millions of lives have been saved. Several key targets have already been met ahead of time or are within reach by 2015. For example, 17,000 children are saved every day, globally maternal mortality ratio dropped by 45 per cent between 2000 and 2013, and an estimated 3.3 million deaths from malaria were prevented due to the expansion of malaria interventions. Poverty, gender parity as well as drinking water targets have been reached.

“While substantial progress has been made in most areas, much effort is needed to reach set targets. For instance, hunger continues to decline, but immediate additional efforts are needed, child mortality has been halved but preventable diseases are still major cause of deaths.

“Maternal mortality has dropped by 45 per cent globally, but worldwide almost 300,000 women died in 2013 from pregnancy and child birth related cases. There is cause, therefore, to still exert a final push on lagging targets to seize on results and available solutions.”

He added that new goals had been set for 2015. These targets, he said, include eradication of extreme hunger and poverty; achievement of universal primary education; improvement of maternal health; reduction of malaria and HIV/AIDS prevalence.

Others targets are to promote gender equality and empower women, ensure environmental sustainability, reduce child mortality rate and develop a global partnership for development.