Uganda among the 50 riskiest places for mothers in the world

Yesterday, the State of The World Mothers report was launched. ANNE MUGISA discusses excerpts from the report.

A woman in Uganda has a one in 49 chances to die from maternal causes. This is according to the State of the World’s Mothers report launched yesterday.

Though Uganda is not among the 40 worst places for a mother and new born baby, it is ranked 132nd out of 176 countries on the State of the Mothers’ index.

The index pointed out that in 2011, the country was losing 90 of its children under-five years out of every 1,000 live births.

The State of the World’s Mothers’ report which also released the first global analysis of newborn death data pointed out that every year, a million babies globally die the day they are born. It said that the first day is the most dangerous for babies.

The index released by Save the Children compared 176 countries in maternal health, child mortality, education and levels of women’s income and political status in different years.

It concluded that the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is the worst place to be a mother.

In fact it pointed out that all the lowest 10 positions were now for the first time occupied by the Sub-Saharan African countries. They include Niger which ranked next to the DRC in the unenviable distinction. The others are Somalia, Sierra Leone, Mali, Nigeria, Chad, Cote d’Ivore, Gambia, Central African Republic (CAR).

The report blamed the high death rates for babies in sub-Saharan Africa on the poor health of mothers -- citing figures which show 10 to 20 percent of mothers are underweight. For example, the report said that a woman or girl in the DRC has a one in 30 chances of dying from maternal causes -- including childbirth.

It also highlighted the number of mothers giving birth “before their bodies have matured”, the low use of contraception, poor access to satisfactory healthcare and lack of enough health-workers.

For most of the babies, the report stated, their deaths are caused by easily preventable causes.

Twenty three percent of the baby deaths are due to asphyxia (inability for the baby to initiate the first breath at birth), 25% by infections, 35% are to complications of being born prematurely and 17% were other causes.

The study also identifies four potentially lifesaving products which it says could be rolled out universally. They are corticosteroid injections                                                              to women in premature labour; resuscitation devices to save babies who do not breathe at birth; chlorhexidine cord cleansing to prevent umbilical cord infections and injectable antibiotics to treat newborn sepsis and pneumonia.

These products that could save the new babies cost between 13 cents of a dollar (less than sh500) and $6 (about sh15,300) and their use could save those  one million babies annually, many on their first day.

The top countries at being the best place to be a mother and a baby are Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland and the Netherlands, with the USA trailing in 30th place behind Slovenia and Lithuania, according to the report.

It blamed the US’s poor placing on its “weaker performance on measures of maternal health and child-wellbeing”. It said that in the United States and developing countries alike, the poorest mothers are more likely to lose a newborn baby, the report finds.

The group called for investment to close the “startling disparities” in maternal health between the developed and developing world and for a push to fight inequality and malnutrition.

“By investing in mothers and children, nations are investing in their future prosperity,” said Jasmine Whitbread, Save the Children International’s Chief Executive.

“If women are educated, are represented politically and have access to good quality maternal and child care, then they and their children are much more likely to survive and thrive – and so are the societies they live in.

Huge progress has been made across the developing world, but much more can be done to save and improve millions of the poorest mothers and newborns’ lives,” she added.

This month, global leaders, experts, philanthropists and development partners from 160 countries will gather in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to discuss issues that affect women’s health and top of the agenda will be maternal health. The Women Deliver meeting is expected to be the largest global meeting of the decade focusing on the wellbeing of girls and women.  Women Deliver aims to keep on the agenda the discussion on investing in girls and women as a strategy to achieve the Millennium Development Goals which the UN wants realised by 2015.