Uttar Pradesh has highest maternal mortality: Unicef report

The high rate of maternal mortality in India are not evenly spread across the country with Uttar Pradesh reporting the maximum number of deaths and Kerala the least.

The high rate of maternal mortality in India are not evenly spread across the country with Uttar Pradesh reporting the maximum number of deaths and Kerala the least.

HT Image

While in Uttar Pradesh, a woman has one in 42 lifetime risks of maternal death, the probability is just one in 500 in Kerala.

Moreover, in India one woman dies of complications related to childbirth every seven minutes.

During 2001 and 2003, an estimated 78,000 women died annually from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth, according to the UNICEF's 'State of the World's Children' (SOWC) report of 2009.

Similarly, in the case of neo-natal deaths, Uttar Pradesh is among the top five.

Orissa is at the top of the list with 52 deaths per 1,000 live births closely followed by Madhya Pradesh at 51 deaths. Uttar Pradesh has 46 deaths, Rajasthan has 45 and Chhattisgarh has 43, the report said.

Patterns of neo-natal deaths also correlate closely to maternal death. Babies whose mothers die during the first six weeks of their lives are more likely to die in the first two years of life than babies whose mothers survive.