--- title: Maternal Mortality Rates Are Falling Around the World description: The World Health organization hopes to end pregnancy-related deaths by 2030 canonical: https://time.com/4110037/pregnant-mortality-maternal-mortality/ author: ashley Ross article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-12T16:19:36.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-05T08:39:54.758Z article:section: Health og:title: Maternal Mortality Rates Are Falling Around the World og:description: The World Health organization hopes to end pregnancy-related deaths by 2030 og:url: https://time.com/4110037/pregnant-mortality-maternal-mortality/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta9e388c2e6600a9d/698870c20b72e333bd6e6ca8/gettyimages-482143981.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4183 og:image:height: 2353 og:image:alt: Pregnant Woman og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Maternal Mortality Rates Are Falling Around the World twitter:description: The World Health organization hopes to end pregnancy-related deaths by 2030 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta9e388c2e6600a9d/698870c20b72e333bd6e6ca8/gettyimages-482143981.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Maternal Mortality Rates Are Falling Around the World > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=03e355ef-d6fd-4161-8706-9f2f3e3034e9&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: World Maternal Mortality Rate Is Improving; The US's Isn't [Watch (HLS stream): World Maternal Mortality Rate Is Improving; The US's Isn't](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/MAeH1dMr.m3u8) (0:49)  _Published 2015-11-12. The U.N. reports the world maternal mortality rate has dropped 44 percent since 1990, but the U.S.'s rate has gone up._ by [ashley Ross](https://time.com/author/ashley-ross/) ## ashley Ross Nov 12, 2015 4:19 PM UTC by [ashley Ross](https://time.com/author/ashley-ross/) ## ashley Ross Nov 12, 2015 4:19 PM UTC A survey found that maternal mortality rates, deaths related to pregnancy or childbirth, [have fallen by 44% since 1990](http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2015/maternal-mortality/en/). The global survey of maternal mortality was published by the United Nations and the World Bank. “Over the past 25 years, a woman’s risk of dying from pregnancy-related causes has nearly halved. That’s real progress,” said Dr. Flavia Bustreo of the World Health Organization. “Although it is not enough. We know that we can virtually end these deaths by 2030 and this is what we are committing to work towards.” Eastern Asia showed the best results in the survey, its ratio falling from approximately 95 to 27 deaths per 100,000 live births. The average global rate is 216 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, down from 385 in 1990. ### Where Childbirth Can Mean Death  Indian families rest in a room reserved for women recovering from cesarean sections, at the Tezpur Civil Hospital in Tezpur, Assam, India. April, 2015\. Assam has the highest rate of women dying in childbirth and from pregnancy-related causes in all of India. The conditions in many of Assam's state-run medical facilities are often overcrowded and unhygienic, with an insufficient number of doctors, and patients sprawled out in the floors and hallways due to a limited number of beds. Lynsey Addario—Getty Images Reportage  Nazreen Khatoon is comforted by her mother as she lies gravely ill, suffering from severe postpartum anemia, at the Tezpur Civil Hospital in Tezpur, Assam, India. April 2015\. Khatoon delivered her son, Kashari Pam, three weeks prior, and returned to the hospital two weeks after delivery when her condition worsened. In dire need of both blood and iron, she was not receiving either from the Tezpur Hospital. She was eventually referred to a private hospital, where she was able to receive better care, but at a great expense to the family. Lynsey Addario—Getty Images Reportage  Nazreen Khatoon winces in pain as she lies gravely ill, suffering from severe postpartum anemia at the Tezpur Civil Hospital in Tezpur, Assam, India. April 2015. Lynsey Addario—Getty Images Reportage  Nasuran Begham, 30, sits in the dark during an electricity cut holding her third child, four days after giving birth, in the a postnatal ward. Assam, India. April, 2015. Lynsey Addario—Getty Images Reportage  Indian families sleep outside a postnatal ward, where women are in labor and recovering from delivery, accompanied by their families. Tezpur Civil Hospital, Tezpur, Assam, India. April, 2015. Lynsey Addario—Getty Images Reportage  Indian women wait to weigh their tealeaves at the end of a workday on a tea plantation in the Tinkharia garden in Assam, India. April 8, 2015\. Many families in Assam work on the tea plantations, where there is a high rate of pregnant and lactating women. Women are severely anemic due to poor diets and little to no prenatal care, which leads to a high number of pregnancy complications. Lynsey Addario—Getty Images Reportage  Babita Hemrom picks tealeaves while holding her child alongside other Indian women on a tea plantation, in the Tinkharia garden in Assam, India. April 8, 2015\. Over years, women working on the plantations have been subjected to long hours with little accommodation of their basic needs for food, hygiene, latrines, and lesser workload for pregnant and lactating women. Lynsey Addario—Getty Images Reportage  Resonate Bhumi sits over her severely deformed infant hours after giving birth at home, in the village of Holing Kata, in the Tinkharia plantation. Bhumi's son was born with no arms and a cleft palate. Many women from the village came to look at the mother and child. Assam, India. April 8, 2015. Lynsey Addario—Getty Images Reportage  Sosana Gowala holds up her severely deformed nephew for the doctor to see, in the Dhekiajuli Community Health Center, hours after her niece, Resonate Bhumi gave birth to a baby with no arms and a cleft palate in the village of Holing Kata, in the Tinkharia plantation, Assam, India. April 8, 2015. Lynsey Addario—Getty Images Reportage  A young woman is comforted by her mother-in-law while in labor in the maternity ward at the Dhekiajuli Community Health Center in Assam, India. April 8, 2015. Lynsey Addario—Getty Images Reportage  Sarasoti Bauri, 22, lies on a stretcher after she delivered her second child in a taxi en route to the hospital. She lost a relevant amount of blood prior to arriving at the Dhekiajuli Community Health Center in Assam, India. April 8, 2015. Lynsey Addario—Getty Images Reportage  A young woman kneels with labor pains in the hallway of the maternity ward at the Dhekiajuli Community Health Center in Assam, India. April 8, 2015. Lynsey Addario—Getty Images Reportage  The delivery room in the clinic at the Sapoi Tea plantation in Assam, India. April 9, 2015. Lynsey Addario—Getty Images Reportage  Indian women walk to work with their children to pick tealeaves on a tea plantation in the Panbari Tea Estate in Assam. India, April 9, 2015. Lynsey Addario—Getty Images Reportage ## Transcript The United Nations goal to reduce deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth is on the right track. A new UN study found maternal mortality has dropped 44 % since 1990. There were over half a million maternal deaths in 19 1990, compared to an estimated 300, 000 this year. The findings are part of the U. N. s millenium development goals, and while it's a step in the right direction, the 44 % drop is still 31 points short of the goals set by the U. N. in 1990. Only nine countries met the U. N. 's goal of reducing maternal mortality by 75 %. And some, including the United States, have higher mortality rates in 2015 than they did in 1990. That's turned some heads. The US's maternal death rate now sits at 14 deaths per 100, 000, a rate that's twice as high as Canada's. The report did note only 1 % of maternal deaths occurred in developed countries in 2015. 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