A Measure of Survival: Where are Women at Highest Reproductive Risk?

Over half a million women worldwide die every year in pregnancy or childbirth—largely from preventable causes.  In the developing world, pregnancy remains the leading killer of women in their reproductive years.  And for young girls between the age of 15 and 19, their chance of dying in childbirth is twice that of their peers in their 20’s.  In order for countries and donors to address global priorities like poverty eradication, HIV cessation, and economic growth, strong political will to improve the sexual and reproductive health of women is paramount.   

PAI’s new report, A Measure of Survival: Calculating Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Risk, ranks 130 developing and developed countries according to sexual and reproductive risk.  The report, released last week during the Women Deliver conference in London, illustrates the harsh reality of being a poor woman in a poor country.

A Measure of Survival documents the continuing stark disparities in reproductive risk between wealthy countries and poor ones.  Niger, Chad, Mali, Yemen and Ethiopia are among the countries where women are at the highest sexual and reproductive health risk. For many, a skilled attendant at childbirth can make the difference between life and death.  In Ethiopia, which has the lowest rate of births attended by a skilled health personnel, 90 to 95 percent of women deliver at home and are two or more hours away from a health facility.  Unsurprisingly, maternal death and infant mortality rates in Ethiopia are both needlessly high.

Overall, the number of women who die from pregnancy-related causes is over 250 times higher in developing countries than in developed countries.  Even more astonishing, these deaths are largely preventable.  In fact, voluntary family planning programs can reduce the number of maternal deaths by reducing unwanted pregnancies and preventing women from seeking often-unsafe abortion.

Ten years after publishing these rankings for the first time, the story still has the same grim ending: Women are dying needlessly.  We should be long past the point of measuring the well-being of women in 18th century terms—by their chance of survival.  By investing in women and their health now, we can help save lives.  Only then will we begin to measure women’s well-being in terms of the number of girls in school, the number of women in the workforce, and the number of women and children who are healthy.

Population Action International (PAI) works to improve individual well-being and preserve global resources by mobilizing political and financial support for population, family planning and reproductive health policies and programs.