More Than Half Million Women Die From Pregnancy-Related Causes - Report

Accra More than 580,000 women - one every minute - die each year from pregnancy-related causes, nearly all in developing countries, a United Nations Population Fund report has said. The State of the World Population for this year released in Accra says many times this number are disabled as a result of child birth. Complications of pregnancy are found everywhere, but nearly all maternal deaths are in developing countries. "An African woman is 500 times more likely to die of pregnancy- related causes than her counterpart in one of the Scandinavian countries". The report, titled: "The Right to Choose: Reproductive Rights and Reproductive Health," summarizes the international understanding that defines sexual and reproductive rights. It presents progress and problems in attaining and protecting those rights and examines the effects of denying them to millions of women and men. It says obstructed labour, haemorrhage and post partum infection are among the major causes of maternal mortality. Gri