Maternal Mortality in Sierra Leone: The Story of Mamma
Lynsey Addario / VII Network
Last Respects
As Sessay's funeral, relatives have covered Sessay's face with ritualistic powder to ward off evil. It will fall to her mother to care for the newborn twins. In Sierra Leone, 1,033 women die for every 100,000 live births, one of the world's highest rates of maternal mortality. This statistic is made more tragic by the fact that the deaths are almost always preventable.
To learn more about how to reduce maternal mortality, please visit the websites of Women Deliver and the United Nations Population Fund
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