AI: Peruvian mothers lack proper health care

A report released by human rights group Amnesty International (AI) paints a stark picture of pregnant women in Peru.

According to AI, hundreds of impoverished and indigenous Peruvian women needlessly die due to a lack of health care. For instance, most doctors speak Spanish but do not speak popular indigenous languages such as Quechua. In addition, most of the at-risk women live in remote areas that are isolated from proper medical care and that most of the deaths could’ve been prevented with adequate medical attention.

One of the study’s researches highlighted the disparate state of health care for Peruvian women:

Amnesty International's Peru Researcher Nuria Garcia said:

'The rates of maternal mortality in Peru are scandalous. The fact that so many women are dying from preventable causes is a human rights violation. The Peruvian state is simply ignoring its obligation to provide adequate maternal healthcare to all women, regardless of who they are and where they live'…

Health services for pregnant women in Peru are like a lottery: if you are poor and Indigenous, the chances are you will always lose.'

Official Peruvian figures say that 185 in every 100,000 women die in child birth, though the U.N. says the maternal mortality rate is among the worst in the Americans at 240/100,000.

The lack of reasonable social services was one of the factors in protests held in the Peruvian Amazon that became violent and cost the lives of at least thirty people.

Image- CNN (“Indigenous women queuing outside a health centre in rural Peru, where amenities are often basic.”)
Online Sources- Amnesty International UK, AP, CNN, the Latin Americanist