Preventable Child, Mother Deaths Shadow Health Sector Gains

Apr 1 , 2026.

Ethiopia is placed at the centre of a pressing health debate, where high stillbirth rates shadow official claims of progress and expose fragile care available to mothers and newborns before, during and after birth.

A new report released last week in Nairobi, Kenya, placed Ethiopia alongside Nigeria, the DR Congo, Tanzania and Sudan, for carrying the heaviest burden of stillbirths, where Africa recorded nearly one million in 2023. Health experts see it as a crisis that is persistent and, in many cases, preventable. Birth defects were the leading cause of stillbirths, accounting for 24pc of cases, with neural tube defects the most common.

Across Africa, experts found that 72pc of stillbirths were preventable through stronger medical, emotional and nutritional care from conception through birth, especially with better antenatal and obstetric care. The Child Health & Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) identified causes for 2,087 stillbirths across sites in Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and South Africa. These were findings set within a picture of uneven gains.

According to Macrotrends, Ethiopia’s infant mortality rate declined to 27.19 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2025, down four percent from 2024, when the rate fell to 28.36, a 20.57pc decrease from the year before. Earlier years showed smaller declines, from 37 in 2022 to 35.70 in 2023. According to experts, the direction is positive, but the pace is uneven. They believe part of the pressure comes from a health system under financial pressure.

The federal government apportioned 32pc of GDP to debt servicing, while tax revenue contribution was at five percent. Although the plan is to keep this under half of GDP, healthcare financing has faced a gap for several years. The shortfall has left maternity and child health services competing for scarce resources.

According to Dereje Duguma (MD), state minister for Health, the federal government was trying to improve maternal health through domestic resource mobilisation. The maternal mortality rate has declined to 141 per 100,000 live births, and the Ministry wants to reduce it to less than 70 by 2030.

The government has introduced the Reproductive Maternal, Newborn, & Child Health compact agreement, bringing together 11 partners and expected to mobilise 284 million dollars over the next three years.

"The initiative is designed to procure essential family planning and maternal health commodities, with more than 85pc of those resources intended to reach community and health facility level," said the State Minister.

A technical task force was overseeing the initiative under an accountability mechanism, and the Ministry of Finance has agreed to provide an additional budget of more than 140 million dollars for maternity leave.

The Ethiopian Obstetric Surveillance System (EthOSS) collected data on maternal deaths, removed personal identifiers and submitted the cases for review by the EthOSS committee for Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Deaths. The study was approved by the College of Health & Medical Sciences of Haramaya University and the University of Oxford’s Oxford Tropical Research Ethics Committee.

The reviews, carried out in 13 hospitals, found that most of the deaths were caused by direct obstetric causes. During the study period, EthOSS recorded 34,090 live births and 70 maternal deaths in the 13 participating hospitals. Haemorrhage killed 27 mothers (46pc) of the study group, while a quarter of the deaths were linked to hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. Delays in seeking care, reaching the right health facility and receiving adequate care were identified in more than 80pc of the cases reviewed.

"The numbers show a system in which women face danger at every step," said Abiy Seifu, an assistant professor at Addis abeba univeity with 15 years of experience in maternal and child care.

Pregnancy and childbirth remained perilous for thousands of women in 2023, even though many of the complications that proved fatal are well understood and often treatable. Heavy bleeding, infection, dangerously high blood pressure and severe weakness from anaemia were among the most common threats. For many women, the danger was compounded by where they lived and how hard it was to reach care. Those in remote areas often arrived too late or not at all, and many went through pregnancy without even basic checkups. Too often, the most critical moments came after delivery, when complications struck, but urgent care was out of reach.

Only 22pc of the women who died were admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), and 80pc of the deaths occurred during the postpartum period. For many mothers, giving birth was not the end of the risk.

Clinicians warn that the gap between policy and outcomes remains wide. According to Abiy, 90pc of child deaths were preventable except those linked to underweight issues, respiratory problems and hereditary malformations. He attributed the problem in ultrasound shortage to security problems, lack of care during transport, poor health facilities and a shortage of skilled. He stated that AI-enabled ultrasounds would help midwives in crisis situations and support early care.

"Taxi-hailing companies could be given incentives during labour time to encourage them to help save lives," he said.

Abiy observed that based on the 2030 plan, most countries, including Ethiopia, are behind schedule. Conflict, weaker external support, capacity problems and lower domestic budget allocations have slowed progress over the past two years.

“The speed of decreasing deaths in children has to accelerate by fivefold,” Abiy told Fortune.

PUBLISHED ON Apr 01,2026 [ VOL 27 , NO 1353]