Running head: MATERNAL MORTALITY 1

Maternal Mortality

Angel Ibarra

e3 Civic High
MATERNAL MORTALITY 2

Abstract

Maternal mortality is the death of woman while pregnant within the 42 days of pregnancy. Over

the years maternal mortality has caused deaths when giving birth. Maternal mortality has been a

huge cause in the African continent. The maternal rate is 18 mothers per 100,000 births in the

US. In Africa, the maternal rate is doubled because of the lack of medical care. The rates can be

reduced with nearer hospitals around with more doctors with experience. If this continues it can

lead to more deaths during the years. With basic emergency care, it can help saves lives. In

conclusion, with more medical care available to the people in need, it can reduce the deaths when

giving birth.

Keywords: Women, maternal mortality, lack of medical care,

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Maternal Mortality

In many countries, there are situations in which many women are not able to see their

children the moment their babies are born, not even a glance at the baby. This is resulting of the

poor medicare, this is an example of the life in Africa. If it can be reduced, it will guarantee to

tremendous positive results. Although many people argue that it is not possible to raise the

amount of support for this cause, it can be worth fighting for. We can start with making this

common in society, creating more hospitals, there will be a decrease in the maternal mortality

rate.

In the US we have a lot of opportunities because of our advanced technologies, such as

medicine, more experience in finding cures and a variety of different ways to handle those who

need help with care. Sadly not all countries get this opportunity for those in need, although the

rates of maternal mortality has decreased dramatically in many third world countries. For

example in Afghanistan during the 1990s it was estimated that about 1,340 women passed away

due to poor hospitality care. According to The World Bank article, WHO organization states that

the ratio of death is 216:100,000 births during the year 1990 to 2015.
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Sierra Leone is located in west Africa and it is another place where there is a maternal

rate in which this factor is a large dilemma. According to UNICEF data, In 1990 the maternal

rate was 2,630 deaths per live births. It has reduced to 1,360 deaths in 2015. This can be reduced

with doctors with experience and more hospitals near unpopulated areas. It is also divided into

the rich and poor. The rich get more attention and fast medical care and the poor have low

income and cant pay for the hospital expenses.

There are many ways in which people can help this cause to decrease in developing

countries. According to Ms. Blog Magazine article it states, There can be someone who has

good experience, who knows how to deliver a baby. They can train other people to help when

someone is giving birth. Making this problem a worldwide topic and convincing large

organizations to get involved to help, and donate as well can be a great start to leading into a

better world. The main idea in which can help reduce maternal mortality is by women having all

the important materials that are needed in order to give birth, during and after birth situations, in

a safe environment. Simply by having a single person who has higher experience in giving birth

should be placed in at minimum each hospital, in order to help guide the people and educate

others on situations and things that can be extremely helpful. Another way that can help spread

this obstacle would be having a talk show to make people more aware of what is truly happening

in this world today, and have guest speakers describe how each individual can help out as well

and not just corporations. It takes a single person to speak up, and from there many will follow

and will lead to making a difference.

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In the United states, there has been famous people who have lost their lives when giving

birth. There is Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt the first wife of President Theodore Roosevelt.

She gave birth to her first child and two days later she died from bright's disease. She died at 23

from 1861-1884. Brights disease is the chronic disease involving the inflammation in the

kidney. Another famous person who lost their live while giving birth is Isabella of Aragon,

Queen of Portugal. Her cause of death was giving child birth.

Counterargument

Many people say that there has always been a problem with these statistics, and its just

coming to light these recent years. Many people argue that hospitals have been relying on a old

way of writing death certificates (created in 1989), and recently, created a new way of writing

them in 2003, instead of thoroughly explaining the reason in which that person has died, they

simply summarize the problem. Therefore, you only get a glance at what truly happened. In the

article Maternal Death Rates, they state that there had been many occurrences where the death

certificates of women who past away does not explain if they died while having the baby or

simply being pregnant during that time, it's simply not accurate. Leaving everyone to question if

the women was pregnant during that same year of death or within 42 days before giving birth.
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States Baby Bumps. This new way of technique for death certificate can not be trusted due to

many errors written, leading to statistics to have higher rates of maternal mortality.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the maternal mortality can decrease with closer hospitals near the poor and

uncommon areas. With more people with birth experience, it can help decrease the maternal rate.

Although, many people argue that it is not possible to raise the amount of support for this cause,

it can be worth fighting for. We can start with making this common in society, creating more

hospitals, there will be a decrease in the maternal mortality rate. There can be new technology

available for the low populated hospitals to help deliver births. Many celebrities have also died

while giving birth. One of the ways to reduce the maternal mortality rate is for doctors to train

civilians to give births and become beginners in hospitals.

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References

J, Wiley & Sons, Inc.(1998).TMIH.(Strategies for reducing maternal mortality in developing

countries). http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1365-3156.1998.00310.x/full

In the journal, TMIH talks about solutions on how to reduce the mortality rate worldwide.

There's a high rate of maternal mortality in the low poverty areas. Maternal mortality

ratios were estimated 160, 1200 and 1300 in Vietnam, Uganda and Burundi. In Sweden,

USA, England, and Wales, the maternal rates have started to drop in the early 1870s.

Sweden was a poor country who had a scattered population and people lived apart from

everyone. The sweden health care was focused on avoiding maternal mortality. England

and Wales ratios were starting to decrease from 600 per 100,000 women. They remained

Between 400 and 450 into the 1930s. The United States had ratios between 855 per

100,000 women. There are more maternal rates in Africa in the world.

Kristof, N. D., & WuDunn, S. (2009). Half the sky: Turning oppression into opportunity for

women worldwide. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

In the book, Half THE SKY, Chapter 6 talks about how many women die because of lack

of medical care during childbirth. Most of the time they have to travel far away to get to

the nearest hospital and some of them dont even make it. There's a story of a girl called

Mahabouba Muhammad, A girl of 13 years old who ran off with her sister to get a job as

maids. A neighbor told her that he could get her a better job, He sold her for eighty

bir($10). They beat her, raped her, and then purchased her to be his second wife. Every

time she tried to escape, she was hit by sticks. So she was forced to stay with him.
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Tavernise, S.(2016, September 21).Maternal Mortality Rate in U.S. Rises, Defying Global

Trend, Study Finds.- The New York Times.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/22/health/maternal-mortality.html

The New York Times states that the maternity rates are a worldwide problem and there

should be a useful solution. The United States is one of the countries that have had

maternal mortality rates dropped by more than a third from 2000 to 2015. Researchers

found that the maternal mortality rate increased 27 percent in 48 states. There are high

rates of deaths in the District of Columbia, New Jersey, Georgia and Arkansas, and

especially it occurs to black women. The obesity among poor black women give them a

higher chance of maternal mortality than whites. If a women dies from her body failing 6

months after giving birth, they can determine if it was pregnancy related. There has been

increases in deaths because not every women has the same care as everybody. They may

also have to travel to the nearest hospitals which are miles away.

UN data, (12 October, 2016). Fertility rate, total (births per woman). Worldwide.

http://data.un.org/Data.aspx?q=women&d=WDI&f=Indicator_Code%3aSP.DYN.TFRT.IN

Over the years the maternal mortality rate has been decreasing in afghanistan. The

country of afghanistan has had the highest rates of woman's death giving birth. In 1965,

Afghanistan's maternal mortality rate was at 7.5. During the 70s and 80s, the rate went

down to 7.4, but gained back up to 7.5. Towards the 21st century, the maternal rate

decreased to a 7.0. On 2014 it went down to a 4.3. This is a cause here because the young

women are sold to other people and forced to be second wives. They die while giving
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childbirth because the young women havent fully grown, so the infants bodys cant

have enough space for their body to grow.

Berry, N. S. (2010).Unsafe Motherhood: Mayan Maternal Mortality and Subjectivity in Postwar

Guatemala.

The book was about how we can make motherhood safer for everybody. Improving the

Health of poor populations around the world. The global community realized that there

were a high frequency of women that were dying from pregnancy causes. Mortality and

maternal health care among indigenous populations in Guatemala have been increasing

because women live in small towns and theres no near hospitals in the area. What the

author wants to accomplish is to help those who don't have the proper care and decrease

mortality rate.