In a small rural clinic in Malawi, a midwife sits down with a young mother and listens through a stethoscope to the small thump of a heartbeat in her belly. She smiles, but she is worried because the funding that allows her clinic to survive may soon go away. This worry is not just limited to her clinic. Globally, in many low-income countries, increasing numbers of pregnant women are losing access to the care that previously offered them a safer experience of childbirth.
The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a warning on Monday about an “unprecedented” halt to aid, endangering thousands of women’s lives annually and maternal health around the world.
As stated in a new report from the WHO and other UN agencies, maternal health has made encouraging progress over the past two decades, with deaths declining by 40% from 2000 to 2023.
However, the challenging news is that about 260,000 women died in 2023 from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth. Regrettably, instead of that number decreasing, the WHO fears it may soon increase. What’s the reason? In the words of the WHO report: “A severe decline in donor aid from around the world.”
The hardest hits came from the United States. The United States was once the largest contributor to reproductive health programs through USAID. This year, the U.S. froze and then reduced nearly all funding without warning this past spring, guided by the former administration of Donald Trump. This left dozens of countries scrambling to sustain their clinics, support their staff, and purchase medical supplies.
In writing, a State Department spokesperson certainly acknowledged the crisis but stated that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had approved ongoing support to 31 countries. However, many aid groups said the damage had been done.
It’s not simply America pulling back. Various European nations, with the UK, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands among them, have cut their international aid budgets to shift funding to national defense, given rising geopolitical tensions.
The impacts are profoundly felt on the ground. “In some spaces, clinics are closing. In others, skilled health workers have been dismissed,” said Catherine Russell, Executive Director of UNICEF. “This leaves pregnant women, particularly in fragile settings, without the support they require to survive childbirth.”
As “the backbone of maternal health in the world’s most vulnerable communities,” Russell emphasized the importance of funding midwives, nurses, and community health workers.
Conditions were made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. An estimated 40,000 more maternal deaths in 2021 were attributed to the virus and the breakdown of trustworthy healthcare systems. For many, it was almost hard to go to a clinic.
The WHO report also pointed to immense disparities in maternal health. Approximately 70% of maternal deaths take place in sub-Saharan Africa (44% of which occur in poorer countries), while the areas most at risk are in conflict and politically unstable regions.
Although the statistics are bleak, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reminded the world that there are solutions. “Pregnancy should not be a death sentence,” he said, “but for too many women, it is.” While budgets are being reallocated or aid is being cut, mothers are at risk.
The time to act is now. We cannot allow any progress in maternal health made over 20 years to be lost because it is too precious and too fragile.
