Nearly two-thirds\u00a0of all maternal deaths worldwide occur in countries\u00a0marked\u00a0by conflict or fragility.\u00a0The maternal mortality ratio of a woman who lives in a country affected by conflict dying due to maternal causes is around five times higher for each pregnancy she undergoes compared to her peers in stable countries.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 2023 alone, an estimated 160 000 women died from preventable maternal causes in fragile and conflict-affected settings,\u00a0that is 6 in 10 maternal deaths worldwide,\u00a0despite these countries accounting for\u00a0only around one in ten\u00a0of global\u00a0live births.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Countries classified as conflict-affected had an estimated MMR of 504 deaths per 100\u202f000 live births, while countries considered institutionally and socially fragile had an MMR of 368. In contrast, countries outside both categories saw a much lower MMR of 99.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
This\u00a0new\u00a0analysis\u00a0confirms what many practitioners see on the ground:\u00a0crises\u00a0create conditions where health systems cannot consistently deliver lifesaving maternal care.\u00a0The brief\u00a0also\u00a0identifies\u00a0that the\u00a0intersection of gender, ethnicity,\u00a0age\u00a0and migration status can increase the risk women and girls face who are both pregnant and living\u00a0in fragile contexts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The disparity of risk is stark: a 15-year-old girl living in a country or territory affected by conflict in 2023 had a 1 in 51\u00a0lifetime risk\u00a0of eventually dying from a maternal cause, compared\u00a0with a 1 in 79 risk in a\u00a0country or territory affected by institutional and social\u00a0fragility, and 1 in 593 for a 15-year-old girl living in\u00a0a\u00a0relatively stable country.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Country experiences illustrate what works\u00a0<\/p>\n
The\u00a0publication also offers case studies\u00a0of how frontline teams are striving to\u00a0maintain\u00a0maternal health services amid instability.\u00a0Solutions in\u00a0Colombia, Ethiopia, Haiti, Myanmar,\u00a0Papua New Guinea\u00a0and Ukraine\u00a0demonstrate\u00a0that even where health systems face extreme pressure, innovative approaches can protect maternal health. They show communities adapting services to cultural needs, health workers restoring disrupted services, hospitals reorganizing care under security\u00a0threats\u00a0and coordination mechanisms evolving to ensure continuity of care.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
In Colombia,\u00a0training traditional birth attendants shows how strengthening trusted local networks can ensure\u00a0timely\u00a0care even where\u00a0access is limited due to\u00a0geography,\u00a0insecurity\u00a0or mistrust.\u00a0establishing continuity of care through mobile teams, renovated\u00a0facilities\u00a0and\u00a0additional\u00a0midwives.<\/p>\n
In Ethiopia, the emphasis is on reestablishing continuity of care through mobile teams, renovated\u00a0facilities\u00a0and\u00a0additional\u00a0midwives. These are practical measures that help restore services after disruption.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Haiti\u00a0demonstrates\u00a0the importance of removing cost and infrastructure barriers, with free or low-cost caesarean sections and reliable\u00a0electricity\u00a0power,\u00a0making lifesaving care available to displaced women who would otherwise have no access.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Myanmar,\u00a0Papua New Guinea\u00a0and Ukraine show that, even amid complex crises or conflict, women benefit when systems focus on protecting essential maternal services, whether through planning at subnational level, improving respectful and safe childbirth practices or reorganizing patient pathways to safer facilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Using fragility-aligned MMR data for action\u00a0<\/p>\n
By linking MMR data to the fragility classification,\u00a0HRP,\u00a0WHO and partners now have a more precise tool to\u00a0identify\u00a0where health\u00a0system strengthening is most urgently needed. The brief emphasizes the importance of\u00a0investing in primary health care to\u00a0maintain\u00a0essential maternal services during crises; strengthening data collection in\u00a0hard-to-reach\u00a0settings,\u00a0to ensure no deaths go uncounted, and supporting resilient health system design, able to absorb and adapt to shocks.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Together, these\u00a0efforts\u00a0can help accelerate progress toward reducing preventable maternal deaths, even in the world\u2019s most challenging environments.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly two-thirds\u00a0of all maternal deaths worldwide occur in countries\u00a0marked\u00a0by conflict or fragility.\u00a0The maternal mortality ratio of a woman…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288743,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[134,527,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-288742","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}