By Anak Dut

The maternal mortality ratio in South Sudan remains higher, from 1,687 in 2000 to 1,223 in 2025, according to the World Health Organization.

This makes the country one of the highest maternal mortality ratios globally.

 At least 40 in every 1000 babies born die within 42 days with a birth rate standing at 26 per 1,000.

Dr. Humphrey Karamagi, World Health Organization representative to South Sudan, attributed the outcomes to barriers such as limited access to skilled care, low rates of facility-based deliveries, insufficient emergency obstetric services, and underutilization of reproductive health interventions.

He added that despite targeted investments, skilled attendance at birth remains low, with only 19 percent of deliveries being handled by trained health workers.

“Just 3 percent of facilities are equipped to provide comprehensive emergency obstetric and newborn care.”

Karamagi said this accounts for only 1 percent of total expected births, which is far below the hold needed to manage complications and prevent maternal and neonatal deaths.

According to DHIS2 data from 2024, over 60 percent of pregnant women attended at least one antenatal care visit, but less than half completed four visits, and only 15 percent reached the World Health Organization-recommended eight contacts as this decline.

World Health Organisation further stated that fewer than half of those who start antenatal care delivered in health facilities,  one out of four mothers and newborns receive postnatal care within two days, while women who deliver in health facilities are significantly more likely to receive timely postnatal care, highlighting the protective effect of institutional deliveries.

Antenatal attendance is strongly associated with early newborn interventions among babies born to women who accessed antenatal care; 97.6 percent received the BCG vaccine.

According to statistics, each day, almost 800 women die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. A maternal death occurs every two minutes.

Maternal mortality, defined as the death of a woman from complications of pregnancy or childbirth that occur during the pregnancy or within 6 weeks after the pregnancy ends, remains a major global health crisis, despite global calls to attention.

The staggering reality, Wilson Centre reports, is that most maternal deaths are preventable and are caused by massive health inequalities which exist within and between countries on a global scale.