HC Deb 23 April 1998 vol 310 cc681-2W
Mrs. Ann Winterton

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what assessment she has made of the rate of maternal mortality from(a) acute respiratory infection, (b) diarrhoeal disease and (c) measles, as a proportion of total mortality in those refugee camps to which her Department provides assistance. [38643]

Clare Short

Maternal mortality is defined by the World Health Organisation as the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of the end of pregnancy from causes related to or aggravated by pregnancy. The leading global causes of maternal mortality are severe bleeding, infection, unsafe abortion, eclampsia and obstructed labour. It is estimated that there are 585,000 such deaths throughout the world per year. However, the death of a woman due to causes such as acute respiratory infections, diarrhoea disease and measles is classed as an adult death and we do not have data on adult female mortality for these causes.