Musarrat Jabeen, Fouzia Gul, Muhammad Rahman.
Maternal mortality ratio and its causes in a District Headquarter Hospital of NWFP.
J Postgrad Med Inst Jan ;19(4):377-81.

Objective: To find out the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) and identify its main causes in a district headquarter hospital of NWFP. Material and Methods: This retrospective, hospital based study was conducted at Women and Children DHQ Hospital, Kohat. All maternal deaths during the time period 01-01-2001 to 31-12-2004 were reviewed retrospectively. Fortuitous deaths were excluded from the study. Medical record was reviewed and relevant data was retrieved. Data was analyzed by using SPSS windows version 10. Results: Total number of deliveries in the given time period was 30842 and total number of live births in this time period was 28917. Total number of maternal deaths during these 4 years was 59. MMR was calculated as 204/100,000 live births. Out of 59 maternal deaths, 52 (88.14%) patients had direct causes and 7 (11.9%) cases had indirect causes. The common causes of maternal deaths were obstetrical hemorrhage in 54.24% cases (32/59) followed by hypertensive disorders in 15.3% (9/59) cases and sepsis in 8.5% (5/59) cases. Fifty-one cases (86.4%) had not received any antenatal care. Conclusion: MMR is reasonably high and the main etiological factors are preventable or treatable if proper medical care is provided in time.

PakMediNet -Pakistan's largest Database of Pakistani Medical Journals - http://www.pakmedinet.com