At least 78,000 women die every year in India during pregnancy and childbirth, according to a report released by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

“This means on an average, every seven minutes, one woman dies from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth,” UNICEF said in a press release.

Most of these deaths occur in a handful of Indian states - Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Assam, according to the agency’s State of the World’s Children report 2009.

At least 450 of every 100,000 women died of pregnancy-related causes in India in 2005, while the neonatal mortality rate was 39 per 1,000 live births in 2004.

While both figures represented a reduction in rates over previous years, faster progress in India was critical to improving maternal and newborn health on a global scale, the report said.

India alone accounted for 22 per cent of global maternal mortality deaths estimated at 536,000 in 2005, the report added.