STUDY OF MATERNAL MORTALITY IN A TERTIARY CARE CENTRE

Abstract

BACKGROUND Maternal death or maternal mortality is defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as the “death of a women 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 or its management but not from accidental or incidental causes.” AIMS AND OBJECTIVES 1. To study the causes of maternal mortality, 2. To identify the deficits to decrease the current rate of maternal mortality. MATERIALS AND METHODS This was a retrospective study done by analyzing hospital records of maternal mortality occurring in the department of obstetrics and gynaecology of a tertiary care hospital of Bihar from January 2019 to December 2019. RESULTS A total of 126 deaths occurred in this period of 1 year. The total number of live births was 5568 in this year making the maternal mortality rate (MMR) to be 2262.93. This may be due to the fact that being a referral institute most of the cases were referred from the peripheries. 76.19% of the women were referred from outside. The most common age group to be affected was 20 to 29 years (79.36%). Multiparous women were more affected than primiparous women (61.9% V/s 38.10%). The most common cause of maternal mortality was eclampsia seen in 26.98% cases followed by PPH seen in 22.22% cases, anemia in 8.73%, medical complications in 7.94% cases , APH in 7.14% cases , rupture uterus in 7.14% cases. The most common type of delay was type 1 and 2. More number of women were from rural areas. More number of women were illiterates. Most of the women had no ANC. CONCLUSION Illiteracy, poverty, lack of knowledge, delayed referrals, lack of ANC are major contributing factors causing such high maternal mortality rate. Health education, strengthening of peripheral health care and availability of trained health workers and essential drugs should be enforced.