Maternal Mortality In Brazil Essay

Illegal abortions are unsafe and account for 13% of all the deaths of woman because of serious complications. The most common grounds which an abortion is allowed is to save a woman’s life, in situations of rape or incest, and for economic or social reasons. In many circumstances where a safe abortion is legal, women risk their lives and many die because the obligation had not been met. In many areas unsupervised uses of misoprostol is being taken by those who cannot access services. Misoprostol is a drug used for early abortions, to treat missed abortions, and to induce labor. Every women of every social class seek terminations, typically a woman who ends her pregnancy is young, white, unmarried, poor, or over the age of 40. More than half of six million pregnancies each year are unplanned and, about half of them end up in abortions.

Maternal mortality represents more than the loss of lives for individual women, as it also reflects the larger value and prioritization of women 's health and threatens the health and survival of families, young children, and even the communities in which they live (Royston and Armstrong, 1989). Maternal mortality is unacceptably high (WHO, 2015b). Globally, approximately 830 women die every day from pregnancy- or childbirth-related complications (ibid.). The causes of maternal mortality are predominately preventable and can be classified into three fundamental causes: (1) medical - consisting of direct medical problems and pre-existent/coexistent medical problems that are aggravated by pregnancy, (2) underlying - social and legal conditions, and (3) health systems laws and policies that address availability, accessibility, and quality of reproductive health services (PHP et al, 2011).

In this study they estimated mortality rates from 1998 to 2005. Their data was gathered from reports posted out by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance System. They looked at pregnancy-related mortality, common maternal comorbidities, and the characteristics of women. The data they found was over a ratio of 100,000 births and 100,00 abortions. In the discussion part of their study and one of their recognized strengths they explain that expressing information like mortality risks into ratio format is easier to understand. Pregnant women considering their options should be entitled to have accurate information about their risk factors (Raymond & Grimes, 2012). They found that 10.4 deaths occur per 100,000 live births and 0.6 deaths occurred per 100,000 abortions. All together their results conclude that according to national data sets, legal abortion in the United States remains much safe than

Out of the 1.3% are late term abortions that had taken place due to the fact that a doctor had found a danger within the child that would in turn lead the mother to death if she had carried the infant to term.Extreme Deformities are unfortunately found at the late stage of twenty one weeks or more, in which a partial birth will have to be performed, Tara Haele informs, “ Partial birth” refers to a very specific and rare procedure called Dilation and Extraction. In which a fetus is partially pulled through the birth canal and then aborted, nearly always when the fetus cannot live outside of the womb and typically when the mother's health is in danger, the fetus has a serious abnormality or both. Such a procedure is not conducted lightly; the fetus has a fatal defect and will not survive. Or the mother is at risk of death herself” (Haele,16). A high percent of mothers may perish or deformed children may die if late term abortions become illegal. In which late term abortions are only taken into action if the infant has a severe disformity or the mother's life is in danger of death. Late term abortions are taken into account only in these dismal situations in which does not occur regularly. The government over exaggerates when they state “ They are aborting babies in the twelfth month of pregnancy” in which those

Furthermore, modern abortion procedures are extremely safe. So safe, in fact, that the risk of a woman dying from an abortion is less that one out of 100,000. On the other hand, the number of women who die during childbirth is 13.3 out of 100,000. Access to legal, professionally performed abortion reduces both injury and death caused by “back-alley” abortions. These back-alley abortions account for 68,000 maternal deaths a year in the 33 countries where abortion is either not legal, or unavailable (World Health Organization, Oct. 2006).

While Latin America’s lack of reproductive rights would seem to be common knowledge, many are unaware of how exactly women in Latin American countries are affected. In a fairly large number of countries, abortion is illegal. In regards to this, “in 2008, 12 percent of maternal deaths in Latin America and the Caribbean were due to unsafe abortions.” (Mane, 2013) 95% of the abortions

According to the article “Are Abortion Rights Threatened, 2013” over fifty million infants, died in 2012 before they even stepped foot into this world, due to abortion. To clarify abortion is the termination of the fetus in the mother’s womb typically by chopping up the baby into pieces with a knife, cracking its skull and vacuuming out its brains, or with the drug RU-486. As a result, abortion is one of the most common and cruel cause of death in the United States, yet the government has legalized this practice. Moreover, there are other measures that can be taken if a women feels she needs an abortion including adoption and financial aid. Therefore, women should not choose to abort her baby, because it is immoral and harmful

Abortion. When we think about the word abortion we think about is it morally right or wrong to take the life of a fetus. The topic of abortion is continually debated, there are those who have a more conservative perspective, liberal view and those in between who believe only under certain circumstances should a woman be able to have an abortion. El Salvador is one of those conservative countries, who in fact, is one of seven Latin American countries that have an abortion ban law (Alvarez, 2015, p. 674). Prior to the abortion ban law, El Salvador allowed abortions under three circumstances, which includes, to save the life of the mother, pregnancy occurred as a result of rape, and fetal impairment (Alvarez, 2015, p. 678). Then, in 1998 the

In his article, "Why are so many U.S. women dying during childbirth?", Munz (2012) pointed out that U.S. is experiencing a rise in maternal mortality. It has doubled for the last 25 years and the experts are uncertain about the increase. Experts are not entirely clear for the rise in the maternal deaths in the U.S., but there are some aspects that may be link to this.

Objective: to evaluate the sociodemographic and obstetric profile of puerperal women at advanced maternal age. Methods: descriptive study with quantitative approach. Data were collected in a public hospital in southern Brazil, using a structured questionnaire applied on medical records, from December 2015 to January 2016. Data were analyzed by SPSS 18.0. Results: the population was 223 puerperal women, 68,6% had 35 to 39 years old, 82,5% were white women, 75,7% were married, 35,4% completed high school and 51,1% worked in a paid job. Regarding to obstetric profile, 91,9% made prenatal care, being that 59,2% made six consults or more. Of all women, 53,4% had cesarean section and 46,6% vaginal birth, 19,7% had preterm babies, 75,3% term and 5%

The lack of resources in maternity departments continues to make C-sections popular in Brazilian hospitals. The don’t have the medical equipment or enough beds to perform vaginal births (Brazil Introduces New Caesarean Birth Rules, 2015). The SUS do not allow women to schedule their delivery in advance, which makes finding a hospital to deliver a stressful situation. Expecting mothers with risky pregnancies can face challenges finding a secure bed, which unfortunately contributes to maternal mortality and morbidity. Women can die or experience negative impacts post-pregnancy (Diniz, S., & Chacham, A., 2004, p102). A Brazilian obstetrician told BBC, “the best way to guarantee yourself a bed in a good hospital is to book a caesarean” (Brazil Introduces New Caesarean Birth Rules, 2015).

Another component to the increased risk of perinatal deaths is the inability of the mother to have access to pre-pregnancy and pregnancy care to improve neonatal and perinatal mortality. A study

For example in South Africa, 200,000 women die every year during childbirth. Mostly due to the fact that the majority of these women live in rural, nomadic or even slum communities and do not have access to basic reproductive and maternal health services (Amref Health Africa in the USA). Complication that are easily treated and prevented in the US are very deadly in many parts of South Africa. Complications like hemorrhage, infection, obstructed labour, hypertensive disorders and unsafe abortions lead to a higher mortality rate for both mother and child. The access to prenatal vitamins much less just regular vitamins is very limited in most parts of Southern Africa. The nutrition level in South Africa is much worse compared to the level in the US. In developing countries like Africa, just getting one prenatal visit is a success; four would be considered a victory (The Bump

Despite abortion being legal in many developing countries access to safe abortion services is still a huge challenge. Unsafe abortion, despite its frequency, remains one of the most neglected global public health challenges. 19-20 million unsafe abortions are estimated take place all around the world every year, 97% of these abortions take place in developing countries. Due to receiving unsafe abortions, 68,000 women are estimated to die every year, and millions more are injured because of it, many permanently.

Today, 76 percent of the world's people live in countries where induced abortion is legal, at least for health reasons, and 39 percent reside in nations where abortion is available upon request. The procedure is legal in nearly every developed country, and although a majority of developing countries prohibit abortion, 67 percent of the residents of the developing world live in countries where it is permitted at least for health reasons. The other 33 percent-more than one billion people, most of living in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the more strongly fundamentalist Islamic nations-have little of no access to legal induced abortion.