Maternal mortality has doubled in recent years in Romania, reaching from 8.4% of thousand births in 2019 to 17.9% in 2020. According to the latest figures published by UNICEF, the average for the European Union is 8 percent of deaths per 1,000 births.

An image of a mother protestingPhoto: INQUAM Photos / Octav Ganea

And even though maternal mortality has fallen significantly in Romania compared to 25 years ago, when more than 100 mothers died after giving birth or immediately after giving birth, the numbers reported annually at the country level are worrying experts. Panorama talked to them to understand the scale of this phenomenon and the reasons behind it, as well as the situation of women who give birth in unfavorable conditions in Romania.

In absolute numbers, while at least 20 Romanian women died during childbirth in 2019, in 2020 32 women lost their lives during childbirth or during childbirth, according to the latest data provided by the National Institute of Statistics (INS).

The lack of equipment in the old maternity hospitals, the lack of family doctors in some counties, the low number of beds and the lack of education and information are just some of the reasons why we still see such tragedies and why Romania has a high maternal mortality rate.

The counties of Giurgiu, Mehedinci, Maramures, Salai, Ilfov, Suceava and Prahova recorded the highest maternal mortality rates in Romania in 2020, as seen in the interactive material How healthy are Romanians, X-ray of health over the last 30 years produced by Panorama.

The situation is worst in Mehedinka, where, according to data analyzed by Panorama, the death rate is almost six times higher than the average, followed by Giurgiu, where the death rate is five times higher than the average. The number of deaths in Salai is four times the average, while in Maramureş the maternal mortality is three times the average, the situation in Ilfov was similar in 2020.

However, problems also exist at the level of other countries, which, in turn, record deviations from the average national mortality rate at birth or during childbirth, even if they are not so serious. Among them are Gorzh, Harghita, Jalomitsa, Hunedoara, Karash-Severin.

“The problem for pregnant women in Romania is represented by a pre-hospital system full of hiccups, which hardly supports the pregnant woman at all,” says Gabriela Alexandrescu, executive president of Save the Children.

Read the article on Panorama.ro