The WOMAN-2 study presents the missing
evidence around anaemia and postpartum
bleeding, advocating for decisive action to cut
the prevalence and severity of anaemia in
women and girls to reduce maternal deaths.
Maternal mortality remains one of the most pressing challenges in global health. Progress has slowed – particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where most maternal deaths occur.
Now, the WOMAN-2 study provides new evidence which suggests anaemia may be the hidden factor driving maternal deaths.
Bringing together new data and powerful personal accounts from women, the report calls for global action to reduce the prevalence and severity of anaemia in women and adolescent girls, with the ultimate aim of reducing maternal deaths.
Data from the WOMAN-2 study shows that anaemia could be responsible for half of the severe postpartum haemorrhage cases in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia – where the vast majority of maternal deaths happen and where half of all women of reproductive age are anaemic.
Women with severe anaemia were twice as likely to have a postpartum haemorrhage diagnosis compared to women with moderate anaemia, despite sometimes losing less blood than the standard threshold.
Women with severe anaemia are seven times more likely to die or nearly die during childbirth and three times as likely to have a stillbirth, compared to women with moderate anaemia.
Our late colleague Professor Bukola Fawole, an obstetrician from Nigeria, had warned us that “our women are different”.
Despite the use of WHO-recommended treatments for postpartum haemorrhage, maternal death rates remain astonishingly high in settings like Nigeria.
The WOMAN-2 study helps explain why, highlighting anaemia as a critical, often overlooked factor that increases the risk of death from bleeding in childbirth.
Sana, a teacher from Pakistan, experienced this first hand. Diagnosed with anaemia during pregnancy, she went on to suffer a postpartum haemorrhage. Watch her story.
