Giving birth is a lethal gamble in Venezuela

There are plenty of reasons to avoid getting pregnant if you live in Venezuela. So impoverished has the country become that maternity units cannot afford to feed expectant mothers from Friday afternoon until Monday lunchtime. Antibiotics, blood pressure treatments and painkillers are a rarity. Medical staff have to re-use surgical gloves. Perhaps unsurprisingly, maternal mortality is soaring, up 43 per cent in three years. More…