Death in Birth – Where Life’s Start Is a Deadly Risk – Series – NYTimes.com

The New York Times has an excellent series on maternal mortality in Tanzania, that touches on several problems common across Africa.

1. Death in Birth: Where Life’s Start is a Deadly Risk
2. The Deadly Toll of Abortion by Amateurs
3. Fragile Tanzanian Orphans Get Help After Mothers Die
And this photography series

Pregnancy and childbirth kill more than 536,000 women a year, more than half of them in Africa, according to the World Health Organization.  Most of the deaths are preventable, with basic obstetrical care. Tanzania, with roughly 13,000 deaths annually, has neither the best nor the worst record in Africa. Although it is politically stable, it is also one of the world’s poorest countries, suffering from almost every problem that contributes to high maternal death rates — shortages of doctors, nurses, drugs, equipment, roads and transportation.

There is no single solution for a problem with so many facets, and hospital officials in Berega are trying many things at once. The 120-bed hospital here — a typical rural hospital in a largely rural nation — is a case study in the efforts being made around Africa to reduce deaths in childbirth….