These figures provide some idea of the disparity in conditions for Africans and whites, but given that they exclude the most impoverished parts of the country, underestimate the extent of the problem. Although current data is not available, there is an indication that African women often suffer and die from common preventable diseases, and that a large part of their sickness and death occurs when the normal processes of childbearing and childbirth go wrong. The major causes of pregnancy-related death are hypertensive disease, bleeding, infections and ruptured uterus. Illegal abortions also constitute a significant cause of maternal morbidity and mortality. Of these, about 400 die from septic abortion.6 Conditions under which legal abortions are allowed are restrictive, and public awareness of the legal options minimal.
Newborn babies inherit the effects of maternal disorders.
Therefore hypertension, sepsis, infections, abruptio placentae, haemorrhage, pre-term labour and unexplained stillbirths are the most frequent causes of perinatal death. Good antenatal care and improved services for delivery can reduce the incidence of these problems. Low birth weight babies are prone to serious diseases in the first weeks of life and are likely to fail to achieve their potential for growth and development in later life. Accidents are also responsible for much injury and death in this age group. This is about seven times higher than the IMR recorded for whites, which is comparable with those of developed countries.