Post-Childbirth Deaths Leave Traces of Mourning in Families and Expose Failures in the Healthcare Sy

[Judi Lynn]

Post-Childbirth Deaths Leave Traces of Mourning in Families and Expose Failures in the Healthcare System in Bra
zil
Stories help explain why Brazil doubled its maternal mortality rate during the pandemic

Mar.8.2023 11:35AM

Cláudia Collucci

BELÉM (PA)
Áurea Monteiro, 28, died at 3:45 pm on March 31, 2021, in the ICU of Santa Casa de Belém, in Pará. Five hours later, Dienne Santos, 38, died in a UPA (Emergency Care Unit) seven kilometers away.
Both had complications from Covid after childbirth, leaving their babies orphaned and a trail of grief that lingers in the families.

In the capital of the neighboring state, Boa Vista, Roraima, indigenous health nurse Gracione da Silva Santos, 44, still mourns the death of his wife Almiza Prado, 37, in June 2020, in the first year of the pandemic. Today he cares for his youngest child, Valentina, who was born with her mother intubated in the ICU, and four other children.

The stories expose flaws in public and private healthcare services at the height of the health crisis, helping to explain why Brazil doubled the maternal mortality rate in 2021, with the North region in the lead, and point out the priority areas that require improvement to contain deaths that can be avoided in 90% of situations.

Data from the federal government program Previne Brasil, extracted by Impulso Gov, a non-profit organization, show that, on average, 34% of Brazilian municipalities were unable to carry out six prenatal consultations for 45% of their pregnant women (target of the program) in 2022. In the North region, this rate almost doubled.

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Post-Childbirth Deaths Leave Traces of Mourning in Families and Expose Failures in the Healthcare System in Brazil