Despite being one of the countries that has enjoyed relative peace for a sufficiently long time, Malawi remains one of the countries in the world with the worst health indicators.
The maternal mortality rate for Malawi is very high by any standard. According to the Malawi Demographic and Health Surveys (MDHS), the maternal mortality rate for Malawi almost doubled between 1992 (620 per 100,000 live births) and 2000 (1,120 per 100,000 live births) and only dropped slightly to 984 per 100,000 live births (95% CI: 822-1,142) in 2004. The lifetime risk of maternal death in Malawi is 1 in 17, which does not compare favourably with the world average of 1 in 74 and 1 in 4,085 for industrialised countries.