The Number of Mothers Who Die Due to Pregnancy or Childbirth is 'Unacceptable'

There's been virtually no progress in reducing the number of women who die due to pregnancy or childbirth worldwide in recent years. That's the conclusion of a sweeping new report released jointly by the World Health Organization and other United Nations agencies as well as the World Bank. The report estimates that there were 287,000 maternal deaths globally in 2020 — the most recent year these statistics cover. That's the equivalent of a woman dying every two minutes — or nearly 800 deaths a day. And it represents only about a 7% reduction since 2016 — when world leaders committed to a so-called "sustainable development goal" of slashing maternal mortality rates by more than a third by 2030. Read more by NPR here.