BACKGROUND Preventable maternal mortality and morbidity have been globally recognized as human rights issues. Maternal mortality in India is among the highest in the world, and reflects inequity in access to healthcare: women from certain states as well as poorer women and less literate women appear to be significantly disadvantaged. The government of India has been attempting to improve matern...

BACKGROUND Estimation of maternal mortality is difficult in developing countries without complete vital registration. The indirect sisterhood method represents an alternative in places where there is high fertility and mortality rates. The objective of the current study was to estimate maternal mortality indices using the sisterhood method in a rural district in south-west Ethiopia. METHOD We...

Women in developing countries are dying from simple preventable conditions but what impact can the procedures collectively called antenatal care having in reducing maternal mortality and morbidity? More importantly what is antenatal care? This review found that questions have been raised about the impact of antenatal care (specifically on maternal mortality) since its inception in developed cou...

Delay in accessing emergency obstetric-care facilities during life-threatening obstetric complications is a significant determinant of high maternal mortality in developing countries. To examine the factors associated with delays in seeking care for episodes of serious illness and their possible implications for safe motherhood interventions in rural Bangladesh, a cross-sectional study was init...

Millennium Development Goal 5 has not been universally achieved, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Understanding whether maternal deaths occur during pregnancy, childbirth, or puerperium is important to effectively plan maternal health programs and allocate resources. Our main research objectives are to (1) describe the proportions and rates of mortality for the antepartum, intrapartum, and p...

Julia Clifford Lathrop was an activist and social reformer in the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries and the first chief of the United States Children?s Bureau. In that capacity, she conducted demographic studies to identify links between socioeconomic factors and infant mortality rates. Lathrop mobilized the effort to increase birth registration and designed programs and publications...

Contextualising maternal health in countries with high maternal mortality is vital for designing and implementing effective health interventions. A research project was therefore conducted to explore practices, beliefs and traditions around pregnancy, delivery and postpartum in southeast Madagascar. Interviews and focus groups were conducted with 256 pregnant women, mothers of young children, c...

This study proposes a methodology for estimating maternal mortality rates (MMR) in Brazil between 2008 and 2011 using data obtained from Ministry of Health information systems. The method assesses underreporting of maternal deaths, the investigation rates of deaths among women of reproductive age, as well as the proportion of maternal deaths that were misclassified as other causes before invest...

CONTEXT Abortion is legally restricted in Malawi, and no data are available on the incidence of the procedure. METHODS The Abortion Incidence Complications Methodology was used to estimate levels of induced abortion in Malawi in 2009. Data on provision of postabortion care were collected from 166 public, nongovernmental and private health facilities, and estimates of the likelihood that women...

one hundred and sixty preterm deliveries were done at our center in (1996-97). classification according to etiology shows that 30% of these deliveries were due to prom, and 13.75% had to be induced secondary to underling fetal or maternal indication, in 35.6% there were maternal or fetal pathology, and in 20.6% there were no recognized reason (idiopathic). the various etiologic factors were eva...