Jordan tops region's maternity care quality list

BABY CARE: A Unicef report reveals wide disparities on maternity care in countries in the MENA region. (Getty Images)

A global report on maternal mortality has outlined a mixed picture of success and failure across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

The UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) review reveals large disparities across the region in antenatal care and skilled attendance during births.

Figures show Egypt and Morocco have ramped up childbirth attendance rates, with 63 percent and 74 percent respectively of births taking place in the presence of a trained healthcare worker.

In Iraq, 89 percent of births are assisted by trained staff, despite ongoing armed conflict and a crumbling health service.

However the Gulf states failed to score top marks, with Jordan remaining the only country in the region with 100% attendance rates.

Maternal mortality ratios in Yemen and Sudan are more than double the regional average of 210 per 100,000 live births.

In South Sudan this figure is almost eight times higher - and one of the worlds’ highest - with a rate of 2,037 deaths per 100,000 live births.

Barely 40 percent of women in Yemen receive antenatal care and only 27 percent of births are attended by skilled health personnel.

“Ensuring enhanced and unrestricted access to maternal health care, reproductive health knowledge and services could spell the difference between life and death for millions of women across the region,” said Unicef spokesperson Dr Haydar Nasser.

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