Pregnant Women Dying In Peru

The South American country of Peru is experiencing a high rate of dying pregnant women recently due to social barriers. The article comes from a CNN Health Report that states the pregnant women who are from rural areas, who are poor and/or are considered indigenous are losing their babies and their own lives in several cases due to the poor medical attention and care received.

Actually, the United Nations performed a study recently and have come to the conclusion that 240 per 100,000 pregnant women are falling victim to dying during childbirth in Peru alone. This study is in conflict with the Peruvian government, who has done their own study which indicates 185 per 100,000 are losing their lives due to pregnancy and childbirth.

There is an interesting picture on this site showing a Peruvian woman giving birth. This technique is called "vertical birth" and the woman crouches on some sort of a table, holds onto a huge rope while her husband, or doctor, I'm not sure, stands behind her and two nurses are in front of her with their hands outstretched ready to "catch" the baby. This woman is receiving the best of care compared to what the poor, indigenous women are having to go through.

An Amnesty report was highlighted in the article also about a pregnant woman who came from one of the poorest regions of the country. She fell and hurt herself and experienced pains, made it to the doctor and the doctor told her she was fine and sent her home where she miscarried two days later.

Granted, doctors are not perfect and things like that happen here in the United States also. However, they interviewed this woman's husband and he reported that the region they live in is so remote, there is no ambulance available and it takes them two to three days travel to arrive at the closest facility to receive medical treatment. The doctor should have taken that into consideration and kept her for observation in my opinion. The miscarriage could then have possibly been avoided. Also, the couple thought part of the problem was a language barrier. And according to the article, this is a common problem.

It seems there are just so many barriers in Peru. One of the most obvious being a language barrier. The Amnesty organization recommends an increase in training for the doctors, mostly in learning languages for the surrounding regions.

I strongly agree. There should also be training not only for the doctors, but for the entire medical staff. There would be no expensive equipment to buy to simply bring in someone to teach different languages. Only the minor expense of paying for classes, which is minor considering it could save several lives. If this would solve the majority of the problem, then it would be a very valuable asset to this country.