Two major factors affect a woman’s chances of surviving childbirth: whether she has adequate health care during pregnancy and whether the delivery of her baby happens with the assistance of a skilled birth attendant (SBA), which generally includes a medical doctor, nurse or midwife who can provide uninterrupted and quality care.
Antenatal care can help women prepare for delivery and understand warning signs during pregnancy and childbirth. It can be a source of micronutrient supplementation, as adequate nutrition for pregnant and nursing women is essential to the well-being of both mother and child. It can also aid in the treatment of hypertension, prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission, and provide pregnant women with medications and mosquito nets to guard against malaria, and more. Yet while 86 per cent of pregnant women access antenatal care with a skilled health personnel at least once, only three in five (62 per cent) receive at least four antenatal visits. In regions with the highest rates of maternal mortality, such as sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, even fewer women received at least four antenatal visits (52 per cent and 46 per cent, respectively).
Achieving universal coverage of skilled birth attendants is one of the key strategies for reducing maternal mortality under Target 3.1 of the Sustainable Development Goals. In 2016, nearly 80 per cent of births took place with the assistance of a SBA, compared to just over 60 per cent in 2000. Despite this substantial progress, nearly 31 million births globally were unattended in 2016, with large disparities in coverage between the poorest and richest countries.
Adolescent girls are at greatest risk
Pregnancy during adolescence, especially early adolescence, can have a number of negative consequences for the health and well-being of girls, their newborns and communities as a whole. In 2015, maternal health conditions – such as haemorrhage, sepsis or obstructed labour – were the leading cause of death among girls aged 15-19. They claimed the lives of about 10 girls per 100,000 in that age group worldwide – and nearly 36 per 100,000 in low- and middle-income African countries, which had the world’s highest maternal mortality ratio among the 15-19 age group. [1]
While globally the adolescent birth rate decreased from 56 births per 1,000 adolescent girls aged 15-19 in 2000 to 44 in 2015, the level in sub-Saharan Africa is more than twice the global average. Latin America and the Caribbean, at 64 births per 1,000 adolescent girls aged 15-19, has the next highest rate.
Policies that encourage girls’ equal access to education, health-care services and socio-economic opportunities would contribute to lessening the prevalence of pregnancy during adolescence. Meeting the need of adolescent girls to delay childbearing also requires removing barriers to using contraception, including cost, stigma, lack of awareness, fear of side effects and limited decision-making autonomy. However, family planning services for adolescent girls in poorer countries are falling critically short. An estimated 12.8 million adolescent girls had an unmet need for family planning in low- and middle- income countries as of 2015.[1] With current trends, that number that may reach 15 million by 2030. In West and Central Africa, the region with the highest rate of adolescent childbearing worldwide, family planning services remain unmet for nearly three in ten married adolescent girls.
Read more about maternal health and early childbearing and access the data here.
