Low-Cost Solutions to Maternal Mortality Already Exist

As foreign aid declines, policymakers in lower-income countries must increasingly focus on making better use of scarce resources. When it comes to maternal mortality, that means investing in simple, proven, and affordable interventions for postpartum hemorrhage, pre-eclampsia, and obstructed labor.

Jul 9, 2026
Ifeanyi M. Nsofor

SILVER SPRING—In early June, Melinda French Gates pledged $215 million to improve women’s health globally, with a focus on underfunded areas such as maternal care in Africa. The announcement comes at a critical moment. Every day, more than 700 women die during and following pregnancy and childbirth, despite the fact that many of the leading causes of maternal mortality are preventable with affordable, evidence-based interventions.

These maternal deaths are not evenly distributed. Roughly 87% of them occur in Southern Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, with the latter alone accounting for nearly 70%. By contrast, high-income countries experience far lower rates, although stark inequities remain. In the United States, for example, Black women are more than three times as likely as white women to die from maternity-related causes.

Continued; https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/increase-funding-for-proven-simple-solutions-to-maternal-mortality-by-ifeanyi-m-nsofor-2026-07

09.07.2026

postpartum hemorrhage

Nigeria – Health advocates seek reinstatement of suspended Lagos pregnancy guidelines

At the programme, the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Akin Abayomi, a professor, stated that the state still records about 400 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, describing the figure as unacceptable for a megacity.

by Emmanuel Agbo
July 8, 2026

Health advocates have renewed calls on the Lagos State government to reinstate the suspended Guidelines on Safe Termination of Pregnancy for Legal Indications (STOP Guidelines), saying the policy could provide doctors with clearer clinical guidance and help reduce preventable maternal deaths.

The call was made by the Project Manager for Pamoja, Rumunse Obi, in an article titled “Dr Majek and the Ghost: Why Lagos Must Revisit the STOP Guidelines”, shared with PREMIUM TIMES on Tuesday.

Continued: https://www.premiumtimesng.com/health/health-news/893830-health-advocates-seek-reinstatement-of-suspended-lagos-pregnancy-guidelines.html

Investing in Midwives is Essential to Improve Sexual and Reproductive Health

The International Day of the Midwife (May 5) reminds us that safe birth is not a stand-alone event, but part of the broader continuum of sexual and reproductive health and rights

05/05/2026
Teguest Guerma, Health Policy Watch

Most maternal deaths occur during labour, birth, or shortly after birth. Nearly 290,000 women died during and following pregnancy and childbirth in 2020, with 95% of these deaths occurring in low- and lower-middle-income countries.

The major causes included severe bleeding, hypertensive disorders, infections, complications from unsafe abortion, and obstructed labour. Yet these events are largely preventable or treatable when skilled care, referral, medicines, blood, and emergency obstetric services are available.

Continued: https://healthpolicy-watch.news/investing-in-midwives-is-essential-to-improve-sexual-and-reproductive-health/

05.05.2026

Commentary

maternal deaths

midwives and abortion

Study highlights family planning’s role in reducing maternal deaths in Nepal

Khabarhub
May 1, 2026

KATHMANDU: A new study has suggested that increased use of family planning methods could reduce maternal mortality in Nepal by up to 30 percent, as the country continues to remain among nations with relatively high maternal death rates.

The study notes that at least 5 percent of maternal deaths in Nepal (based on 2021 data) are linked to unsafe abortion, indicating that improved access to contraception could significantly reduce preventable deaths.

Continued: https://english.khabarhub.com/2026/01/546682/

A Dangerous Shift in Maternal Health Policy

by Stephanie Psaki, Dara Kass and Elizabeth Tobin-Tyler
Apr 30, 2026

More than 85% of maternal deaths in the United States are preventable. Yet last week, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testified before the Senate, defending a budget that would eliminate Title X, Healthy Start, and the CDC’s Safe Motherhood and Infant Health Portfolio: the very programs designed to prevent maternal deaths and keep infants healthy. Earlier this year, the House passed legislation to funnel federal dollars toward unregulated pregnancy centers that largely lack medical licensure and rarely provide actual prenatal care. The Supreme Court also recently ruled that anti-abortion centers can proceed with a legal challenge to a state subpoena of fundraising records.

Continued: https://time.com/article/2026/04/29/a-dangerous-shift-in-maternal-health-policy/

Texas Medical Board Sanctions Three Doctors for Delayed Care That Led to the Deaths of Two Pregnant Women

Porsha Ngumezi and Nevaeh Crain died during miscarriages in Texas. The state’s medical board ruled that the doctors’ substandard care led to the deaths and ordered them to complete extra training.

by Kavitha Surana and Lizzie Presser
April 17, 2026

The Texas Medical Board has disciplined three doctors ProPublica previously investigated whose patients died after receiving delayed or inappropriate pregnancy care under the state’s strict abortion ban.

Two of the doctors failed to properly intervene as a pregnant teenager repeatedly sought care for life-threatening complications, the board found. The third did not provide a dilation and curettage procedure to empty a miscarrying patient’s uterus, and she ultimately bled to death.

Continued: https://www.propublica.org/article/tmb-disciplines-doctors-ngumezi-crain-cases

Nigeria: Beyond the Numbers – What Data and Community Voices Reveal About Maternal Deaths in Nigeria

20 March 2026
Oladimeji Solomon Yemi and Safiya Shuaibu Isa

Nigeria remains one of the countries with the highest number of maternal deaths globally, with a maternal mortality rate of 993 deaths per 100,000 live births. While maternal mortality has declined globally over the past two decades, Nigeria has lagged behind both regional and global trends. In contrast, countries such as Ghana, Ethiopia, and Rwanda, which once faced similar challenges, have made significant gains by investing in skilled birth attendance, strengthening primary health care, and improving referral systems.

In Nigeria, community-informed maternal death reviews carried out between May 2019 and May 2020 show that many maternal deaths occurred outside formal health facilities, including at home, in traditional birth attendant (TBA) settings, or in faith-based centres. Even when facility-based deaths occur, they are often the result of delayed referrals rather than isolated failures of clinical care. Communities point to poor access to quality services, shortages of skilled health workers, weak referral systems, long distances to care, and persistent cultural beliefs as key drivers of maternal mortality.

Continued: https://allafrica.com/stories/202603200231.html

21.03.2026

Commentary

maternal deaths

maternal mortality

Oladimeji Solomon Yemi

I want everyone to be free’: A midwife’s fight for women’s bodily autonomy in Chad

Martine Ngaina was arrested for helping a woman access contraception without a husband’s approval—and she kept fighting

March 17, 2026
Ipas

Martine Naigna has spent the last 15 years working as a midwife in Chad’s toughest humanitarian settings—alongside refugee and nomadic communities, including in remote desert areas—to help meet the sexual and reproductive health needs of women and girls who are often the most marginalized and least served by the health system in times of crises.

Now a health systems advisor with Ipas in Chad, she has built her career in a landscape where abortion is legally restricted and where patriarchal norms and systemic barriers have historically cost women their lives. Her advocacy was born of a singular, mounting frustration: witnessing preventable and needless maternal and child deaths because women lacked the autonomy to make decisions about their own bodies.

Continued: https://www.ipas.org/news/midwife-fight-bodily-autonomy-chad/

How this abortion champion is expanding access in Mozambique

‘I will not stop fighting for safe abortion until no woman or girl is left behind’

March 16, 2026
Ipas

A tragic encounter early in her nursing career set Estrela Góia on the path to becoming a dedicated abortion champion who partners with Ipas Mozambique to train providers and expand access.

“I witnessed a lot of maternal deaths as a young nurse, and many were due to unsafe abortions,” says the maternal and child health-care manager with the Provincial Directorate of Health in Mozambique. “I remember once when a young woman came to our clinic with an incomplete abortion. She was desperate and afraid, but unfortunately, it was too late to reverse the damage caused by a back-alley procedure. Despite our best efforts, we couldn’t save her. She died a painful, needless and preventable death, which deeply saddened me.”

Continued: https://www.ipas.org/news/how-this-abortion-champion-is-expanding-access-in-mozambique/

Nigeria – IWD: NRHJN seeks increased investment in family planning to reduce maternal deaths

By Idowu Abdullahi
March 11, 2026

The Network of Reproductive Health Journalists of Nigeria has called for increased investment in reproductive health services, particularly family planning, to reduce maternal deaths as Nigeria joined the rest of the world to mark the 2026 International Women’s Day.

The reproductive health journalists noted that many Nigerian women still face barriers in accessing family planning services, maternal healthcare, and other reproductive healthcare due to poor funding.

Continued: https://healthwise.punchng.com/iwd-nrhjn-seeks-increased-investment-in-family-planning-to-reduce-maternal-deaths/

11.03.2026