The burden of maternal mortality in a semi urban Nigerian town: Five year experience

Abstract

Pregnancy is one of the most important periods in the life of a woman, but it can unpredictably at times 
be affected by obstetrics complications thereby leading to the death of women either directly or 
indirectly during antenatal period, labour or in the puerperium. This study aims to determine the 
magnitude and causes of maternal deaths in a tertiary hospital. This is a five-year retrospective 
descriptive analysis of all cases of pregnancy related maternal deaths at the Niger Delta University 
Teaching Hospital Okolobiri, Bayelsa State, in the Niger Delta of Nigeria. There were 13 maternal deaths 
and a total of 1812 live births during the study period giving a maternal mortality ratio of 717.4 per 
100,000 live births. Major causes of deaths were sepsis 6 (50.0%) and pre-eclampsia/ eclampsia 4 
(33.3%). Maternal death was more likely to  occur  in the unbooked (p ; 0.001; 95% CI ; 0.02 to 0.51), 
between ages 19 to 23 years (p; 0.035; 95% CI ,0.918 to 11.615), in women of high parity (p ; 0.000; 95% 
CI ; 0.00 to 0.08)and in the unemployed(x2 = 28.198; df = 5; p = 0.000). There is an urgent need to 
address and improve on the quality of care given to unbooked emergencies in our institution. In 
addition other preventable social causes need to be tackled.