Maternal death review: A path to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of improving maternal health

Abstract

Childbirth is a universally celebrated event, an occasion for dancing, fireworks, flowers or gifts. Yet, for many thousands of women each day, child bearing is experienced not as the joyful event as it should be, but as a private hell that may end in death. Worldwide, over half a million women die every year as a result of complications arising from pregnancy and childbirth. For every woman who dies, many more suffer from serious conditions that can affect them for the rest of their lives. According to the WHO 2000 estimate, Ethiopia ranks 4th (24,000) in the absolute number and 22nd in maternal mortality ratio. The current estimate for MMR in Ethiopia is 871 per100, 000 live births. Maternal mortality as defined by the Tenth Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) is the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management but not from accidental or incidental causes. (excerpt)