Assessing quality of care and outcomes for women and their Infants in Nigeria after pregnancies complicated by hypertensive disorders

Hypertensive disorders in pregnancy (HDPs) are the leading cause of maternal mortality in Nigeria—now killing more women than postpartum hemorrhage. Various factors, including lack of capacity among lower-level health-care providers to detect, manage, and refer complications, have been indicated as reasons for most of these deaths. A landscape analysis of pre-eclampsia/eclampsia (PE/E) in Nigeria identified a lack of further information after delivery about the women who experienced HDPs. In this study, the Ending Eclampsia project recruited women with HDPs around the time of childbirth, and prospectively followed them for up to one year postpartum. The study evaluated the care these women received during the first six to eight weeks after delivery, for both themselves and their infants. Health statuses were assessed, and any patterns of morbidity were identified in the year after these deliveries. The magnitude of the gaps in care during the postnatal period, for both the women and their infants, is evaluated in this report, along with an examination of the pattern of morbidities and mortalities in this cohort of women during the year of monitoring