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Mortality rate at a glance

• In August 2014, Unicef released statistics suggesting that Zimbabwe’s maternal death rate had dropped 36 percent since 2009, to 614 per 100 000 live births from a whopping 960, nearly topping the list in Africa.
• The European Union, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Population Fund and the United States Agency for International Development financed the Zimbabwe survey, which researched 17 000 households in every province of the country.
• The numbers show that 70 percent of pregnant women in 2014 received prenatal care (up from 57 percent), and 78 percent of mothers gained access to care after birth (up from just 27 percent).
• Both prenatal and postnatal care have improved dramatically, including the number of check-ups performed and the distribution of information to mothers on how to care for themselves and their children.
• In 2009, the maternal mortality rate stood at 960 deaths for 100 000 births.
• The main causes of death included post-partum haemorrhage, sepsis and malaria. Deaths were also attributed to delays in seeking health care, finding appropriate facilities and being treated at a clinic or hospital.
• Many women delivered their babies at home, and health care remained unaffordable for a large proportion of the population.
• Only 66 percent of births were attended by a skilled health care worker.
• Furthermore, a United Nations report published in 2013 found that patriarchal traditions based on male superiority that lie outside the legal protection system deny women access to health care-countryoffice. unfpa.org/