First Signs of Pregnancy
1. Statistics
In 2012, there were about 213 million pregnancies of which 23 million were in developed countries while the other 190 million were in developing countries. This translates to 133 per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 to 44 years old. It is estimated that 10% to 15% of pregnancies result in a miscarriage. In 2016, the number of maternal deaths due to complications in pregnancy was about 230,600. This is quite a significant decrease from 1990 where there were 377,000 deaths. Common causes of maternal deaths include obstructed labor, bleeding, infections, ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage complications, elective abortion, and hypertensive diseases during pregnancy. About 44% of pregnancies worldwide are unplanned with 56% of these unplanned pregnancies being aborted.
