Researchers at several international agencies said the key to achieving further reductions in maternal mortality is access to quality, attentive health care that women have easy access to. Photo by Chaikom/Shutterstock

NEW YORK, Nov. 12 (UPI) -- Maternal mortality around the world has been cut nearly in half during the last 25 years, according to a new report released by the World Health Organization.

Maternal mortality, the death of a woman during pregnancy, labor, or within six weeks of birth, dropped from about 532,000 to 303,000 deaths per year since 1990, when the United Nations approved a set of eight international Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs, on a range of issues from poverty and AIDS to education.


The UN, with the World Health Organization and UNICEF, set a goal to slash maternal mortality by three-quarters by this year. Nine countries achieved the goal -- Bhutan, Cabo Verde, Cambodia, Iran, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Maldives, Mongolia, Rwanda, and Timor-Leste -- though several of these countries still have higher mortality rates than the rest of the world, despite their significant progress.

Researchers at the agencies are now looking toward further reductions after the UN set a goal to effectively end maternal deaths by 2030, which would require a tripling of the pace of reductions seen since 1990.

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"As we have seen with all of the health-related MDGs, health system strengthening needs to be supplemented with attention to other issues to reduce maternal deaths," said Geet Rao Gupta, deputy executive director of UNICEF, in a press release. "The education of women and girls, in particular the most marginalized, is key to their survival and that of their children. Education provides them with the knowledge to challenge traditional practices that endanger them and their children."

The agencies received data for 171 of 183 countries, finding that maternal mortality ratios had fallen from 385 deaths per 100,000 live births in 1990 to 216 per 100,000 in 2015, a 43.9 percent drop, according the report, published in The Lancet.

Regional reductions ranged from 1.8 percent per year decreases in the Caribbean to a five percent annual decrease in eastern Asia. Eastern Asia showed the greatest improvement of any region, where maternal mortality fell from 95 per 100,000 live births to just 27, a reduction of 72 percent.

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By the end of this year, researchers estimate that 99 percent of the world's maternal deaths will have happened in developing regions of the world, with Sub-Saharan Africa representing two-thirds of them. Even so, the region has improved hugely: A 45 percent decrease in maternal mortality was seen since 1990.

The UN set a new goal in September to reduce maternal deaths even further, from the current 216 per 100,000 to below 70. To achieve this, the rate of global annual improvement since 1990, 2.3 percent, will need to triple to 7.5 percent starting next year.

Education and resources are most important to reduce these rates, the agencies said, as leadership in individual countries need to step up the strengthening of health systems, delivering quality care and essential health interventions, and educating women about health and family planning.

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Special attention also needs to be paid during humanitarian and epidemic crises because maternal deaths increase in those types of settings, leaders said.

"Many countries with high maternal death rates will make little progress, or will even fall behind, over the next 15 years if we don't improve the current number of available midwives and other health workers with midwifery skills," said Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director of the United Nations Population Fund. "If we don't make a big push now, in 2030 we'll be faced, once again, with a missed target for reducing maternal deaths."