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Maternal Mortality in Developing Countries

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Nutrition and Health in Developing Countries

Part of the book series: Nutrition ◊ and ◊ Health ((NH))

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Abstract

According to the latest estimates of the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), 585,000 women still die every year from complications of their pregnancy, and nearly 90% of these deaths are in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia (1). Obstetric complications continue to represent the major cause among women of childbearing age, far ahead of tuberculosis, suicide, sexually transmitted diseases, or AIDS (2). Although developed countries have made enormous progress in bringing down the huge death rates associated with pregnancy, women in developing countries continue to face very high risks of death and disability as a result of pregnancy.

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  1. Carine Ronsmans
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ophthalmology, Division of Ocular Immunology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Richard D. Semba MD, MPH

  2. Helen Keller International — Regional Headquarters, Jakarta, Indonesia

    Martin W. Bloem MD, PhD

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Ronsmans, C. (2001). Maternal Mortality in Developing Countries. In: Semba, R.D., Bloem, M.W. (eds) Nutrition and Health in Developing Countries. Nutrition ◊ and ◊ Health. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-225-8_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-225-8_2

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