Abstract

Introduction: Although there has been a worldwide decline in maternal mortality over the past decades due to improved health  services; it is still a major public health problem throughout the world. The aims of the present study were to assess the yearly maternal mortality ratio, to investigate the trend in maternal deaths and analyze some associated factors over the period 2008-2018.

Methods: This is a descriptive retrospective, hospital-based study carried out at Al-Sadaka Teaching Hospital over an 11-year period from 1 st January 2008 to 31th Dec 2018 addressing pregnancy-related deaths.

Result: There were 57.203 live births, and 88 maternal deaths, giving a maternal mortality ratio of 153.84 per 100.000 live births. The highest maternal mortality ratio was observed in the year 2016 (313.59 per 100.000 live births), followed by 243.93 in the year 2017. Nearly three quarters (73.9%) of deaths were due to direct causes. The leading causes of direct maternal deaths were toxemia of pregnancy (27.3%) followed by obstetric hemorrhage (13.6%) and sepsis and anesthesia complication (8% each). Just more than half of maternal deaths (54.6%) occurred after delivery, and 17% occurred during labor whereas most of the remaining died in second half of pregnancy (21.6%). The majority of the causes was avoidable.

Conclusion: The majority of causes and contributory factors are preventable through combined safe motherhood strategies of focused antenatal care, prompt referral, active management of labor and immediate post-partum period and access to family planning.

Keywords: Maternal mortality, Direct and Indirect Causes, Toxemia of Pregnancy, Hemorrhage, Sepsis.

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