BACKGROUND Maternal near-miss (MNM) incidence is the indicator reflecting maternal healthcare services. This study aimed to determine the burden of maternal near-miss and maternal deaths in Sayaboury Province, Lao PDR. METHODS A descriptive study was done in a cohort of 1215 pregnant women, who had their last normal menstrual period (LMP) between 1 August and 31 December, 2010. WHO criteria f...

INTRODUCTION Different approaches have been developed in order to deal with maternal mortality. In 2008 the Brazilian Ministry of Health made mandatory the investigation of all deaths of women of reproductive age. So far, completeness of investigation has not been thoroughly accomplished in the State of Rio de Janeiro (RJ) due to the constrained capacity of public health services to investigate...

Although there has been significant reduction in the total number of maternal deaths worldwide, however, many developing countries like Nigeria have not been able to achieve MDG 5 by the end of 2015 [1]. This is buttressed by the fact that Nigeria and India recorded 58,000 (19%) and 45,000 (15%) maternal deaths respectively accounting for 34% of the total global maternal deaths [1]. Moreover, 5...

BACKGROUND Social autopsy is an innovative approach to explore social barriers and factors associated to a death in the community. The process also sensitize the community people to avert future deaths. Social autopsy has been introduced in maternal deaths in Bangladesh first time in 2010. This study is to identify the social factors in the rural community associated to maternal deaths. It also...

Maternal mortality ratio in Nigeria is one of the highest in the world. This paper reports a facility based study in north-central Nigeria to determine the magnitude, trends, causes and characteristics of maternal deaths before and after the launch of the Safe Motherhood Initiative in Nigeria, with a view to suggesting strategic interventions to reduce these deaths. The records of all deliverie...

OBJECTIVE To measure the incidence of maternal and early neonatal mortality in women who gave birth at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) in Kenya and describe clinical and other characteristics and circumstances associated with maternal and neonatal deaths following deliveries at MTRH. METHODS A retrospective audit of maternal and neonatal records was conducted with detailed analysis ...

Progress towards the Millennium Development Goal No. 5 was measured by an indicator that excluded women who died due to pregnancy and childbirth after 42 days from the date of delivery. These women suffered from what are defined as late deaths and sequelae-related deaths (O96 and O97 respectively, according to the International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision). Such deaths end up not ...

OBJECTIVE We sought to examine etiology and preventability of maternal death and the causal relationship of cesarean delivery to maternal death in a series of approximately 1.5 million deliveries between 2000 and 2006. STUDY DESIGN This was a retrospective medical records extraction of data from all maternal deaths in this time period, augmented when necessary by interviews with involved heal...

BACKGROUND High levels of maternal mortality and large associated inequalities exist in low-income and middle-income countries. Adolescent pregnancies remain common, and pregnant adolescent women face elevated risks of maternal mortality and poverty. We examined the distribution across socioeconomic groups of maternal deaths and impoverishment among adolescent girls (15-19 years old) in Niger, ...

OBJECTIVE To detect maternal deaths, analyse associated causes and compute absolute and specific maternal mortality ratio among five Italian regions in response to a recent ranking of Italy by the Lancet as having the lowest maternal mortality ratio among 181 countries. DESIGN Record-linkage study. SETTING Five Italian regions. POPULATION All women aged 15-49 years resident in the partici...