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Thandeka Moyo, Health Reporter
AN average of seven women die while giving birth in Zimbabwe weekly amid reports that 124 maternal deaths have been recorded since the beginning of the year.

Statistics show that for the week ending May 7, nine women succumbed to maternal deaths.

Zimbabwe’s maternal mortality rate stands at 614 deaths per every 100 000 live births which remains one of the highest in the region.

The World Health Organisation defines maternal mortality as the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management but not from accidental or incidental causes.

According to a report from the Ministry of Health and Child Care, three of the deaths recorded in the first week of May were from Mpilo Central Hospital and United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH).

“The cumulative figure for maternal deaths is 124. Of the nine deaths recorded by week ending May 7, two were from UBH and one from Mpilo.

Other districts which recorded one maternal death each include Mutare district, Mbire district, Centenary district and Chikomba district,” reads the report.

Kwekwe and Masvingo districts also each recorded a maternal death.

Experts say presenting oneself late in hospital, bleeding, high blood pressure and infections are the major causes of maternal deaths in Zimbabwe.

“In March the cumulative maternal deaths stood at 58 and rose to 87 in April countrywide,” reads the same report.

Zimbabwe’s maternal mortality rate stood at 960 deaths per 100 000 live births in 2010, according to the World Bank.

In The Trends in Maternal Mortality Study: 1990 to 2013 by the United Nations Population Fund, the United Nations considers a maternal mortality ratio of less than 100 as low, between 100 and 299 as moderately low, and high when it is 300 to 499.

— @thamamoe