According to a new UN report, every 2 minutes a woman dies needlessly from pregnancy or childbirth. Here’s why

“While pregnancy should be a time of great hope and a positive experience for all women, tragically it still remains a shockingly dangerous experience for millions of people around the world who lack access to quality, respectful healthcare,” she said World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom said Ghebreyesus in a press release about the report released on Thursday.

Major bleeding, high blood pressure, pregnancy-related infections, complications from unsafe abortions and underlying conditions that can be made worse by pregnancy (such as HIV/AIDS and malaria) are the leading causes of maternal deaths, according to the report. All of these conditions are “largely preventable and treatable with access to quality and respectful healthcare,” the authors noted.

According to the report, maternal mortality in Europe and North America increased by 17% and 15% from 2016 to 2020, respectively. Rates stagnated in four regions and fell by 35% and 16% respectively in two others – Australia and New Zealand and Central and South Asia – over the same period.

The pandemic may have negatively impacted these numbers, the authors wrote, noting that COVID increases the risk of pregnancy complications. They encouraged pregnant women and women planning pregnancy to be vaccinated.

Globally, there were an estimated 287,000 maternal deaths in 2020, only slightly fewer than the estimated 309,000 in 2016. While progress was made in reducing maternal deaths between 2000 and 2015, those gains largely stalled or reversed thereafter, according to the report even around .

Maternal mortality tends to be concentrated in the poorest countries and in areas of conflict. In 2020, about 70% of global maternal deaths occurred in sub-Saharan Africa. And in countries facing severe humanitarian crises, the maternal mortality rate is more than twice the global average, the authors write.