Image Credit: WHO/Khadijah Farah

Geneva, February 26 (RHC)-- A new report by the United Nations finds one person dies during pregnancy or childbirth every two minutes — revealing an alarming setback in reproductive health in recent years in nearly all regions of the world. 

The report tracks these deaths from 2000 to 2020. Europe and North America, as well as Latin America and the Caribbean, had the largest increase of pregnancy or childbirth deaths from 2016 to 2020.  But as a whole, these deaths continue to be largely concentrated in the poorest parts of the world and in countries impacted by conflict.

In the United States, new research shows childbirth is deadlier for Black families regardless of their socioeconomic background.  Black pregnant women and their babies, even when wealthy, are still twice as likely to die than their white counterparts.