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Maternal death in Mexico: poverty & negligence

The maternal mortality ratio shows that in Mexico, a lot of women die as a result of a deficient medical attention

Women in rural and Indigenous communities lack health services - Photo: File Photo/EL UNIVERSAL
28/07/2019 |08:17
Redacción El Universal
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When a mother dies during or after giving birth is one of the worst tragedies, it is something that should never happen, nevertheless, it does. In Mexico , on average, every day three women die while or after giving birth , due to complications or negligence . Additionally, it's been revealed that in a decade, from 2007 to 2017, over 11,000 women died as a result of negligence or infections contracted during a hospital stay.

It is especially alarming that a third of the perinatal deaths take place in rural areas , where medical attention is scarce and located far from Indigenous and farmer communities , as well as a large part of the population who lack the medical attention provided by the government . In this sense, receiving medical attention from government institutions does not guarantee that women will be safe during their pregnancies since up to 70% of obstetric deaths registered took place among beneficiaries of the public health system.

Besides the obstetric deaths registered at hospitals, we should add hundreds of reports about the mistreatment of pregnant women , who are treated with indifference by hospital staff when they arrive at the hospital with imminent signs that shoe they are ready to give birth but who are refused medical attention , as the staff claims there is no space or no experts available.

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The maternal mortality ratio (MMR) shows that in Mexico, for every 100,000 births, around 40 women die, as a result of deficient medical attention .

Maternal death

is a clear indicator that Mexico is far from being a developed country and although the country committed to reducing perinatal deaths before the UN , the goal is yet to be achieved. In order to solve the problem, every hospital should be inspected and spare no expense in regards to health because the life of thousands of Mexicans is at stake, who have been promised a better life and e fficient health services by the governments.

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