Cuba Improves Maternal Mortality Rate

HAVANA TIMES, Jan 5 — Cuba achieved in 2011 a maternal mortality rate of 40.6 deaths per 100,000 live births – the best performance in four years, according to a report Granma newspaper yesterday quoting sources from the Ministry of Public Health.

This figure is not commonly disclosed by health authorities on the island, but this year it was highlighted for having improved in the recent period. This places Cuba with Chile and Uruguay as being the Latin American countries with the lowest indicators of maternal deaths.

In total, 133,063 infants were born last year in Cuba, during which time 42 mothers died primarily as a result of bleeding during pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period.