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Childbirth Deaths Higher Among Africans
EFL - AP from Newsday
African women have a one in 16 chance of dying during childbirth — a rate 175 times greater than that in the West, the United Nations said Monday.
Comes as a surprise, huh? Betcha never expected to see something like that...
Most maternal deaths and disability result from delays in recognizing complications, reaching a medical facility or receiving quality care, said the study by the World Health Organization, the Children’s Fund and the Population Fund. "Much of this death and suffering could be avoided if all women had the assistance of a skilled health worker during pregnancy and delivery, and access to emergency medical care when complications arise," the study said.
How much did the study cost? Couldn’t this money have been better spent training mid-wives?
Since accurate figures on maternal mortality are difficult to come by, the agencies developed a way of estimating the number of deaths in countries lacking statistics.
Great, now some bozo can whine about African mortality using estimates that he created at is desk in Brussels. Kind of takes the "act" out of activism.
The new method showed that 95 percent of the 529,000 maternal deaths in 2000 occurred in Africa and Asia.
Is this new method called guessing?
WHO Director-General Lee Jong-wook said many African women deliver their children alone or with untrained attendants. "Skilled attendants are vital because they can recognize and prevent medical crises," he said.
This answers the musical question: WHO are You. We’er idiots that point out obvisous conclusions from our desk where we conducted studies using data that we extracted from between our lower cheeks.
UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy called the death rate "unacceptably high" and said there was an urgent need to provide better care, especially in Africa.
Carol, the term unaccptable implies that you intend to take action. Carol, are you there? Carol...
Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, executive director of the Population Fund, said lives also would be saved if women had access to voluntary family planning.
Glad Thoraya wasn’t around before I got my chronic in-grown toenail problem fixed. I think she would have recommended assisted suicide. Wouldn’t it be better if we start with the trained midwives before we build all the abortion clinics?
She's got a point. You stand a much better chance of not dying in childbirth if you're not having a kid...
In 2000, the most recent year for which statistics were available, the death rate per 100,000 live births ranged from 20 women in developed countries to 920 women in sub-Saharan Africa, the agencies said.
Wonder if you can estimate the effect of Taylor and Mugabe in your estimated statistics.
Posted by: Super Hose 2003-10-20
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=20123