Maternal Mortality in the United States and Sub-Saharan Africa
Abstract
This paper will examine maternal mortality in both the United State and Sub-Saharan Africa and present statistical information for both areas. Women die of avoidable complications in childbirth each year. Reduction in deaths, due to maternal mortality in the United States has dropped and has been stable for the past twenty years, which has led the United States to expand maternal mortality to include homicide. Sub-Saharan Africa cannot boast these same statistics. Over half the maternal mortalities that occur annually happen in Sub-Saharan Africa. While there is still need for improvement in the United States, there is a need to begin the most basic of programs in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Maternal Mortality in the United States and Sub-Saharan Africa
The twenty-first century is here and still more than half a million women die every year during pregnancy or after childbirth. This paper will examine maternal mortality in the United States and Sub-Saharan Africa and will present information that while similarities exist between the two there, remain vast differences. In spite of two decades to bring down the death toll, little has changed, especially in much of the developing world. Women die of avoidable complications such as HIV, poor prenatal care, postnatal care, high blood pressure, or hemorrhage in childbirth, and often the baby dies too or does not survive the next few years without a mother. In countries where abortion is restricted or contraception is not easily accessible women die by the thousands at the hands of those practicing abortion without the knowledge, much less a license.
United States
The tracking of information regarding maternal mortality statistics is a key indicator of a nation's health. In 2007, the World Health Organization tracked this information for detecting groups at risk, and once identified, informing medical professionals and public health agencies,...