Maternal mortality - A challenge?

Background: the current maternal mortality rate (mmr) in maharashtra is 104/100000 live births,ranking 3rd in india. there is scope for reducing it as mejority of the causes of mmr are preventable and curable. aims and objectives: to study the socio-demographic profile and causes of maternal deaths at dr. v. m. govt. medical college,solapur. material and methods: the study population included all deliveries i.e. women admitted in the hospital during pregnancy,childbirth or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy from any cause related to or aggravated due to pregnancy during the period of 2 years from 1st august 2009 to 31st july 2011. ipd case records and autopsy reports of all maternal deaths were taken and various variables were studied. the present study is prospective study of maternal mortality conducted in dept. of obstetrics and gynaecology,dr. v. m. medical college solapur. cases were distributed according to their age,literacy rate,residence,socioeconomic status,ante-natal care,gestational age,gravida/parity,place of referral,pregnancy outcome,and place of delivery,perinatal outcome and etiological factors. this study also suggests the measures to reduce maternal mortality. results: the total number of live births during the study period were 13,188 and total number of maternal deaths were 63 and mmr was 477 per 1,00,000 live births. in the maternal deaths studied,1/3rd of the women were illiterate,half of the women belonged to urban slum areas and of lower socio-economic class. 1/3rd of the deaths occurred in primi gravida,within 24 hrs from admission,58.73% of the patients were referred from outside. out of that 86.49% of women were sent from private hospital and died in post partum period,having poor perinatal outcome. haemorrhage (28.57%) and hypertension (12.69%) are two direct causes and severe anemia (33.33%) is most common indirect cause of maternal death in our study. © journal of krishna institute of medical sciences university.