UNFPA Country Representative Marielle Sander is renewing calls to improve women’s health services in response to new estimates showing that global progress towards reducing maternal mortality have stagnated in the past 5 years.
According to the latest estimates released by the UN, every two minutes a woman dies during pregnancy or childbirth. The report, Trends in Maternal Mortality, reveals alarming setbacks for women’s health over recent years. The report, which tracks maternal deaths nationally, regionally and globally from 2000 to 2020, shows there were an estimated 287,000 maternal deaths worldwide in 2020. This marks only a slight decrease from 309,000 in 2016 when the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) came into effect.
In Papua New Guinea, the report estimates that the likelihood that a 15-year-old girl will eventually die from a maternal cause is 1 in 150. This is compared to 1 in 960 for a girl in Fiji, and 1 in 19,000 for a girl in Australia.
“This report shows the inequality faced by women and girls when they do not have access to quality health care,” said UNFPA Country Representative Marielle Sander. “A woman born in Papua New Guinea should not face a higher risk of dying from pregnancy or childbirth than those in neighbouring countries.”
“UNFPA has an ambitious goal. We do not aim to merely reduce preventable maternal deaths, but to eliminate them completely,” said Ms Sander. “One woman dying from a preventable cause related to pregnancy or childbirth, is one woman too many.”
“We must invest in women’s sexual and reproductive health, including strengthening the supply chain of essential maternal health medicines. We also need to invest in the health workforce. PNG needs a minimum of 5000 qualified midwives to change the statistics on maternal mortality. Today, we have less than 800.”
UNFPA is working with the National Department of Health, with support from the Australian Government, to provide inventory management training, emergency obstetric and newborn care training, and safe delivery equipment for health care workers across Papua New Guinea.
