The Plight of Mexico's Indigenous Women
The Lancet — May 15, 2010
It is not hard to find a case of a woman dying from childbirth in Chiapas. At one of the many pharmacies near to the city's main hospital, a worker tells of how her 26-year-old cousin began haemorrhaging after the birth of her second child, went into a coma, and died months later. "She had been going to the doctor every month", said the pharmacy worker, who asked that her name not be used.
Many women in this impoverished state at the southern end of Mexico do not even get the chance to see a doctor. Medically, the problem begins with a lack of prenatal visits, and then peaks catastrophically with the difficulty in accessing surgical care when complications occur during birth and in the days and weeks afterwards.
But the real culprits are poverty, insufficient education, poor transportation infrastructure, and a lack of medical staff. Overall, Mexico has made substantial progress in cutting its rate of maternal death. As a study in The Lancet recently noted, nationally maternal mortality has declined from 124 deaths per 100 000 livebirths in 1980, to 52 deaths per 100 000 by 2008. But the national numbers mask glaring inequalities, which continue to divide Mexico along lines of class, ethnicity, and geography.