Mortality:  Globally, there has been significant process in reducing maternal and newborn mortality.  Maternal mortality declined by 44% between 1990 and 2015, and neonatal mortality declined by 49% between 1990 and 2017.  Despite this progress, each year more than 300,000 women die due to complications of pregnancy and childbirth and 2.5 million babies die during the first month of life.  

 

Causes of death:  The leading causes of direct obstetric deaths are hemorrhage, hypertensive diseases of pregnancy, and sepsis.  Indirect non-obstetric causes such as anemia and HIV are a growing proportion of deaths.  For newborns, the three main causes of death are prematurity, intrapartum-related complications, and sepsis.  Deaths due to congenital anomalies are becoming more common especially in low mortality settings.