Each year, about 529,000 women die giving birth. In Sierra Leone, one woman out of 8 has chance of dying in childbirth during their lifetime. An African country with a population of 6.3 million people, Sierra Leone has 2,100 deaths per 100,000 live births, which is the highest maternal mortality ratio in the world according to UN; and 857 deaths per 100,000 live births from the government figure. (US is 11) The brutal civil war that lasted 11 years had ended in 2002; however, the country still suffered from poverty and lack of health care system which still resulted in the highest death rate of pregnant mothers in the world. At Princess Christian Maternity Hospital in Freetown, the capital city, at least three mothers died of obstetric causes in two weeks of May 2010. Two died of severe eclampsia, and one died of unsafe abortion before the hospitalization. All of them could have survived if the proper pre-natal care was carried out.
The causes of deaths include hemorrhage, obstructed labor, eclampsia, unsafe abortion, anemia, HIV/AIDS, malaria, and others.
The Sierra Leonean government introduced free medical health care to pregnant mothers in late April 2010, lifting financial barriers for many poor families. However, challenges such as socio-cultural barriers still remain.
Photojournalist. Born in Seoul, South Korea in 1970. Graduated from Seoul National University in 1993; continued her studies in photography in NYU and photojournalism in University of Missouri School of Journalism in the U.S. Worked as a reporter for the Korea Times in New York, and later interned at major U.S. newspapers such as Newsday and LA Times. She is a Grand Prix winner of prestigious CARE Humanitaire Reportage in 2007 and Pierre & Alexandra Boulat Award in Perpignan, France, first prize winner of Days Japan Photojournalism Awards and WHOâ??s Stop Tuberculosis Partnership Award in 2008, and the second prize winner of Days Japan Photojournalism Awards in 2010. She is also an author of her autobiographical essay, â??A Photographer in Kabul,â?? the reportage on DR Congoâ??s sexual violence, â??Tears in the Congo,â?? and â??â??Struggle for Hope.â?? Currently based in Seoul working as an independent photojournalist.
