Mortality figures belie indigenous mothers’ plight
Friday, May 2nd, 2008Stephen Lunn & Siobhain Ryan; 2/5/08
Australia boasts one of the world’s lowest rates of mothers dying while pregnant or in childbirth, but the situation is far grimmer for indigenous women. New figures to be published today by the Australian Institute for Health and Welfare reveal Australia’s maternal death rate for the period 2003-05 of 8.4 per 100,000 women giving birth is low even among developed countries. Overall, there were 65 deaths directly or indirectly related to pregnancy or its management, equating to one woman dying for every 11,896 women giving birth, the AIHW reported. This was a marked fall from the 2000-02 period, when 84 deaths were recorded. The report, Maternal deaths in Australia 2003-2005, reveals a marked discrepancy for indigenous women. “Maternal mortality rates for Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander women were more than 2 1/2 times as high as for other women,” it says. “There were 21.5 deaths per 100,000 women giving birth, versus 7.9 per 100,000 for non-indigenous women.”
