Submitted Chapter 3

Building on expressed support from the Prime Minister to the Ministries of Health and Planning, the country's new family planning commitment grew out of: (1) recognition of the impact of family planning on maternal mortality and economic development; (2) knowledge sharing of best practices from other African countries; (3) participatory development of a national strategic plan; (4) strong colla...

This paper explores the effect of risk and socioeconomic factors on maternal mortality at the community level in Madagascar using a unique, nationwide panel of communes (i.e., counties). Previous work in this area uses individual or cross-country data to study maternal mortality, however, studying maternal mortality at the community level is imperative because this is the level at which most po...

In all developed countries today males have higher mortality than females at all ages but in many developing countries the reverse is true for part or all of the age range 1-44 years (1-3). For adults, one major cause of higher female mortality IS maternal mortality; clearly, for children there must be other causes. This article reviews the major hypotheses concerning the causes of higher femal...

BACKGROUND As the Millennium Development Goals campaign (MDGs) came to a close, clear evidence was needed on the contribution of the worldwide MDG campaign. OBJECTIVE We seek to determine the degree of difference in the reduction rate between the pre-MDG and MDG campaign periods and its statistical significance by region. DESIGN Unlike the prevailing studies that measured progress in 1990-2...

In the year 2000, 529 000 maternal deaths were recorded throughout the world. Of these, 95% occurred in Africa and Asia, 4% in Latin America and the Caribbean, and less than 1% in the developed countries. The global maternal mortality rate is 400 per 100 000 live births, while it is 830/100 000 in Africa, followed by 330/100 000 in Asia (excluding Japan). Worldwide, 13 developing countries acco...

Heart disease is the primary cause of nonobstetric mortality in pregnancy, occurring in 1%-3% of pregnancies and accounting for 10%-15% of maternal deaths. Congenital heart disease has become more prevalent in women of childbearing age, representing an increasing percentage (up to 75%) of heart disease in pregnancy. Untreated maternal heart disease also places the fetus at risk. Independent pre...

Pre-eclampsia is defined by the International Society for the Study of Hypertension in Pregnancy as, “Gestational hypertension of at least 140/90 mm Hg on two separate occasions 4-6 h apart accompanied by significant proteinuria of at least 300 mg in a 24 h collection of urine. It arises de novo after the 20th week of gestation in a previously normotensive woman and resolves completely by the 1...