Maternal Death Rates

By Jill Moss¹

Broadcast: October 27, 2003

This is Doug Johnson with the VOA Special English Development Report.
A study finds that one out of sixteen women in Africa will die during 1)pregnancy² or 2)childbirth. The rate for industrial countries is one out of almost three-thousand women. Better health care would save many lives.
The findings are in a report released this month by three United Nations agencies. The World Health Organization joined with the U-N Children's Fund and the U-N Population Fund. Researchers estimate that more than half a million women died during pregnancy or childbirth in two-thousand. They say ninety-five percent of these deaths were in Africa and Asia.
India had the highest number of maternal³ deaths, one-hundred-thirty-six-thousand. Pakistan and Afghanistan each had over twenty-thousand.
But the death rate was highest in Africa. Nearly forty-thousand women died in 3)Nigeria. 4)The Democratic Republic of Congo and 5)Ethiopia each had almost twenty-five-thousand deaths.
Carol Bellamy heads the U-N Children's Fund. She says the numbers show an urgent need to improve reproductive health care for women. In addition, Mizz Bellamy says family planning programs would help make sure pregnancies⁴ are wanted and spread out over time.
Experts say many deaths could be avoided if more women gave birth with the help of skilled health workers. Currently, only about fifty-eight percent of women in developing nations have a trained health worker present during birth.
The new report says Latin America had four percent of the maternal deaths in two-thousand. Researchers say the rate is low because skilled health workers assist most women.
The findings show that Southeast Asia and Northern Africa had the greatest improvement in recent years in the use of skilled help. But in sub-Saharan Africa, less than half of women get such care during childbirth.
Carol Bellamy says pregnant women also must be able to receive emergency medical care if problems develop. Often, even if life-saving care exists, women may lack money, or a way to reach a medical center, or approval from their husbands.
World leaders have agreed to try to reduce maternal death rates by seventy-five percent over the next twelve years. This promise is part of the U-N Millennium⁵ Development Goals.
This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. I'm Doug Johnson.

注释：
1) pregnancy [5pre^nEnsi] n.怀孕
2) childbirth [5tFaIldb\:W] n.分娩
3) Nigeria [nai5dViEriE] n.尼日利亚(非洲中西部国家)
4) The Democratic Republic of Congo  刚果民主主义共和国
5) Ethiopia [7i:Wi5EupjE] n.埃塞俄比亚(非洲东部国家)

1 moss   

n.苔，藓，地衣

参考例句：

• Moss grows on a rock.苔藓生在石头上。
• He was found asleep on a pillow of leaves and moss.有人看见他枕着树叶和苔藓睡着了。

2 pregnancy   

n.怀孕，怀孕期

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
• Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。

3 maternal   

adj.母亲的，母亲般的，母系的，母方的

参考例句：

• He is my maternal uncle.他是我舅舅。
• The sight of the hopeless little boy aroused her maternal instincts.那个绝望的小男孩的模样唤起了她的母性。

4 pregnancies   

怀孕，妊娠( pregnancy的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Since the wartime population needed replenishment, pregnancies were a good sign. 最后一桩倒不失为好现象，战时人口正该补充。
• She's had three pregnancies in four years. 她在四年中怀孕叁次。

5 millennium   

n.一千年，千禧年；太平盛世

参考例句：

• The whole world was counting down to the new millennium.全世界都在倒计时迎接新千年的到来。
• We waited as the clock ticked away the last few seconds of the old millennium.我们静候着时钟滴答走过千年的最后几秒钟。