Al Jazeera America: In the DRC, maternity too often means mortality
“…The conflict, which has afflicted eastern Congo since the 1990s, has severely weakened the health system, with clinics ransacked, medical workers evacuated, and others refusing to work in hot zones. Pregnant women are one of the vulnerable groups swept up in the tumult, and Congo has one of the highest maternal death rates in the world, with 846 per 100,000 live births. … Overall the DRC has about half the necessary health workforce to effectively manage its birthrate, according to the U.N. Population Fund…” (Gaestel, 2/9).