Maternal mortality and its causes in a tertiary center.

OBJECTIVES To study the maternal mortality and the complications leading to maternal death. METHODS A retrospective study of hospital records and death summaries of all maternal deaths over the period from January 2000 to August 2009 was carried out. RESULTS There were a total of 80 maternal deaths out of 88,443 live births giving maternal mortality rate (MMR) of 90.45 per 100,000 live births. Unbooked and late referral accounted for 77.5 % of maternal deaths. The majority of the deaths was in 30-40-year age group and around term. Hemorrhage was the commonest cause of death (52.5 %), followed by sepsis (13.75 %) and pregnancy-induced hypertension including eclampsia (10 %). CONCLUSIONS Hemorrhage, sepsis, and pregnancy-induced hypertension including eclampsia were found to be the direct major causes of death. Anemia and cardiac disease were other indirect causes of deaths.