social determinants

Role of Social Determinants in Maternal and Child Health

About 287,000 women died during and following pregnancy and childbirth in 2020. Around 95% of these maternal deaths occurred in low and lower middle-income countries and nearly every death was preventable. Equally, children under the age of five continue to face differing chances of survival based on where they are born and raised.

A child born in sub-Saharan Africa is 11 times more likely to die in the first month of life than one born in the region of Australia and New Zealand, and a 15-year-old girl in sub-Saharan Africa is 400 times more likely to die in her lifetime due to issues related to childbirth than a 15-year-old girl living in Australia and New Zealand (with the ratio for SSA being 1 in 40, compared to ANZ being 1 in 16,000 women).