Maternal Death
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. Among estimated 3,00,000 women who died globally in 2015 as a result of pregnancy related conditions most of the maternal deaths occurred in Sub-
Saharan Africa (1,79,000 deaths). Nearly a third of maternal deaths worldwide occurred in two countries: 17% in India and 14% in Nigeria.
Maternal Mortality Ratio
Maternal Mortality Ratio
Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) refers to the number of maternal deaths during a given time
period per 100,000 live births. This is the most commonly used measure of maternal mortality and serves as an indicator of the risk for death once a woman has becom
e pregnant. The denominator is live births rather than all pregnancies because of the difficulty in ascertaining the number of miscarriages and abortions in the population.
Maternal Mortality Rate
It is defined as the number of maternal deaths in a given period per 100,000 women of
reproductive age (15-49 years of age) during the same period. Since the frequency of pregnancy in women of child bearing age is a factor in calculating the rate, it is a ltered by differences in the frequency of pregnancy or birth in the population even though the risk of maternal death per pregnancy/birth remains unchanged.
Direct Obstetric
Direct obstetric death results from obstetric complications of pregnancy, from i
nterventions, omissions, incorrect treatment, or from chain of events
resulting from pregnancy, labour, delivery, or postpartum conditions. About 75% of maternal deaths
worldwide between 2003 and 2009 were due to direct obstetric causes.
Haemorrhage accoun ted for 27.1%, hypertensive disorders 14.0% and sepsis 10.7% of maternal deaths, with the remainder due to abortion (7.9%), embolism (3.2%) ,all other direct causes of death (9.6%).Direct obstetric deaths accounted for about the same proportion of mater nal deaths in both resource-rich and resource- limited settings. However, embolism was a more common cause of death than sepsis in resource- rich settings. Additionally, regional estimates show substantial variation.