Maternal & Child Health

Women and children are most vulnerable during and immediately after childbirth. Today, more women and children are surviving than ever before. Still over 290,000 women died due to complications during pregnancy and preventable causes.

Maternal Health

Motherhood is often a positive and fulfilling experience, but for too many women it is associated with suffering, ill health and even death.

Despite progress, societies are still failing women, most acutely in poor countries and among the poorest women in all settings.

Evidence shows:

• Significant improvement in the mistreatment of women during childbirth
• Ensuring quality midwifery care for mothers and new-born
• Generating and monitoring epidemiological information

Strengthening quality midwifery for all mothers and keeping global recommendations up to date: A ‘living guidelines’ approach to maternal and prenatal could improve maternal health.

Maternal Mortality – 2017

94% occurred in low-resource settings, and most could have been prevented

86% (254 000) of the estimated global maternal deaths in 2017 occurred in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.

Sub-Saharan Africa alone accounted for roughly two-thirds (196 000) of maternal deaths

According to Fragile state alert of “very high alert” or “high alert” being a fragile state – Nigeria is amongst

Women die as a result of complications. The major complications below account for nearly 75% of all maternal deaths:

• severe bleeding (mostly bleeding after childbirth)
• infections (usually after childbirth)
• high blood pressure during pregnancy (pre-eclampsia and eclampsia)
• complications from delivery
• unsafe abortion
• The remainder are caused by or associated with infections

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” Maternal deaths decline slowly with vast inequalities worldwide”

Child Health

During the last 3 months of pregnancy, antibodies from the mother are passed to her unborn baby through the placenta.

The high rates of preventable death and poor health and well-being of newborns and children under the age of five are indicators of the uneven coverage of life-saving interventions and, more broadly, of inadequate social and economic development. Poverty, poor nutrition and insufficient access to clean water and sanitation are all harmful factors, as in insufficient access to quality health services such as essential care for newborns.

Health promotion, disease prevention services (such as vaccinations) and treatment of common childhood illnesses are essential if children are to thrive as well as survive.

Child Mortality

Child mortality is an everyday tragedy of an enormous scale that rarely makes the headlines. Every case of a family losing a child is a tragedy, regardless of how common or uncommon the cause is.

Every country in the world agreed to reach the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Goal 3.2 is to reduce the child mortality rate to at least as low as 2.5% in all countries by 2030. Therefore, more than 97.5% of all newborns would survive the first five years of their life no matter where they are born.

1990 – 12.6 million — 2017 – 5.4 million under-5s died (more than halved)

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Although child mortality rates have declined around the world there are still many countries in which the mortality rate is higher than 2.5%. In 2017 the most child deaths:

1) India – one million

2) Nigeria – 714,000

Followed by, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia and China

The leading causes of child death – globally in 2017

15% of deaths – Pneumonia and other lower respiratory diseases

12% of deaths – Preterm births and neonatal disorders

10% of deaths – Diarrhoea diseases: Many preventable

9% of deaths – Congenital defects

45% of deaths – Infectious diseases: Many preventable

By protecting children, we may also improve their health as adults.