Two maternal deaths are recorded every three hours in Cote d’Ivoire where there are also 614 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, source told APA on Thursday.
“There are two maternal deaths every three hours in Cote d’Ivoire. The direct causes of these deaths are hemorrhage (42.17 percent), high blood pressure and complications (13.06 percent), uterine ruptures (6.62 percent) …),” explained Euphrasie Coulibaly Kambou of the international NGO IPAS which presented the results of the wave 2 of the survey called “Assisted Reproduction” (PMA) 2020 in Cote d’Ivoire.
She was speaking at a training workshop organized in Dabou, a commune located 5 km west of Abidjan by the Network of Media, Arts and Sports Professionals engaged in the fight against AIDS and other pandemics in Cote d’Ivoire (REPMASCI) and the NGO IPAS in order to sensitise journalists to engage in the promotion of the fight against clandestine abortions in Cote d’Ivoire.
According to the same survey, the average age of first sexual intercourse among girls in urban areas is 16.9 years in Cote d’Ivoire against 16.1 years in rural areas, she added.
Cote d’Ivoire which has the highest maternal mortality rate in the subregion (614 deaths per 100,000 live births) aims to increase its contraceptive prevalence to 36 percent by 2020. In the country, 61.7 percent of girls have already had an abortion.
LB/ls/lb/abj/APA