Maternal mortality at a tertiary health care: a retrospective study

Background: Maternal mortality is the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy irrespective of the duration and site of pregnancy from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy, but not from accidental or incidental causes. The aim of this study is to find out the causes of maternal mortality and the complications leading to maternal death.Methods: A retrospective study was conducted by reviewing the hospital records to study the maternal deaths and complication leading to maternal death over the period of one year from July 2016 June 2017 in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Bundelkhand Medical College, and associated hospital Sagar, Madhya Pradesh. All the maternal deaths were scrutinized for various aspects likely to be related to death such as age, locality of residence, antenatal care, admission death interval and the cause of death.Results: The maternal mortality ratio in the present study is 292.33/100,000 live births. There were 28 maternal deaths out of 9578 live birth during the study period. The majority of deaths occurred in the 20-30 age group. hemorrhage (32.14%) and hypertensive disorders (14.28%) are two most common direct cause of maternal deaths. 42.85% of maternal deaths occurred within the first twenty-four hours of admission. Post-operative and post abortal sepsis, amniotic fluid embolism and pulmonary embolism are other direct causes. Indirect causes of maternal deaths account for 21.42%. Severe anemia was the leading indirect causes of maternal deaths.Conclusions: Hemorrhage, hypertensive disorders, and anaemia remain the major cause of maternal deaths. Delay in decision making, provision of treatment and referral to tertiary centre contributed higher maternal mortality. This requires more efforts to recognize the direct and indirect causes of maternal deaths