Determining the Level of Maternal Mortality in Eritrea using RAMOS (Reproductive Age Mortality Study).

Objective: To determine the current estimate for the Maternal Mortality Ratio in Eritrea. Methods: The study used RAMOS (Reproductive Age Mortality Study), which is a methodology of identifying all deaths of women in reproductive age as a source for identifying maternal deaths. All female deaths with in reproductive age were first identified in a nationally representative sample of 42 communities, which was followed by identifying maternal deaths among the female deaths, through verbal autopsy. Findings: In the 42 selected communities, a total of 46,684 households were visited and a total of 248 female deaths within the reproductive age group (15-49 years) were identified. Among the 248 female deaths 41 were found to be maternal deaths. For calculating the maternal mortality ratio, the number of deaths was directly used as the numerator while the denominator was obtained using the fertility rates from a recent Demographic and Health Survey. This gave a maternal mortality ratio estimate of 752 per 100,000 live births and a lifetime risk for maternal mortality of 1 in 28, for the country. Conclusion: The level of maternal mortality in Eritrea is still very high. RAMOS can be effectively and efficiently used to determine Maternal Mortality Ratio and the other measures for the level of maternal mortality