In Niger, 1 in 7 Pregnant Women Die in Childbirth

Sometimes, trying to become a mom can be fatal. Especially if you live in a country like Niger, where one in seven women who give birth will die in the process. In Afghanistan and Sierra Leon, it's one in eight. Those are some crazy numbers.

Yemisrach Kifle writes on the Global Poverty blog that one of the major problems is a lack of medical professionals trained in safe delivery. Save the Children, which compiled the report with its disturbing statistics, says supporting and increasing the number of these "skilled birth attendants" is vital to improvement.

In addition, the poorer and more disadvantaged women in a given country are, the more likely it has ridiculous maternal death rates. So while it's important to get more skilled birth attendants in these countries, we need to address the root cause of the problem by empowering and educating women.

In contrast, 1 in 4,800 women in the United States die in childbirth. While this clearly shows the massive disparity because the worst-off countries and a more developed country, this statistic is no reason to pat ourselves on the back. Among developed countries, we have one of the worst maternal mortality rates. In Ireland, by contrast, only 1 in 47,000 women die in childbirth. So are maternal mortality rate is 10 times worse than Ireland's? Seriously, we really don't have the resources to trump that teeny country?

If you're interested in learning more about the best and worst countries for maternal mortality, check out the report, State of the World's Mothers, here.

Photo credit: hdptcar