Congratulations on pointing out on your editorial page the scope of maternal mortality (“A silent tragedy of maternal death,” June 17). Tragically, every minute, some place in the world, at least one woman dies (370 deaths per 100,000 live births) from conditions related to pregnancy.
A similarly heavy toll affected women in our country early in this century. Luckily, this ratio has decreased from 376 in 1940 to 7.9 in 1992. Minority women’s ratios, however, remain three times higher than whites. If we want to reach the People 2000 objective of reducing the maternal mortality in this country by 50 percent, the whole community needs to unite.
New reports about maternal mortality find the actual number of deaths higher than the previous estimates. Although the three most common causes of maternal deaths (hemorrhage, infection and elevated blood pressure) have decreased in this country, other factors have become more significant. One, for instance, is our inability to reach the segment of the population that needs the preventive, educational and clinical obstetrical services the most. Another relates to social or cultural conditions, such as the impact of violence, drug use and fatalism in our women and families.
For instance, the reported number of maternal deaths caused by homicide and other injuries, more common in our society today, varies from 8 percent to 46 percent of other maternal deaths. This wide range relates to the origin of the report. As expected, when the study includes coroner’s office records, homicide and other injuries have greater preponderance. Some have even suggested doing pregnancy tests on all bodies of women from 10 to 50 years of age to achieve the true mortality ratio.
Meanwhile, we must improve access to comprehensive, cultural-sensitive, efficient obstetrical care for all of our women.
