Maternal Morbidity

For every maternal death, thirty women who survive childbirth suffer from poor reproductive health and serious pregnancy related illnesses or disabilities. Due to these unacceptable mortality and morbidity levels, efforts have been made since the late 1980s to improve maternal health and reduce maternal mortality. This has been one of the key concerns of several international conferences and summits including the Alma Ata conference and the Millennium Summit in 2000. Millennium Development Goal 5 target A, seeks to improve maternal health by reducing by three quarters the 1990 Maternal Mortality Ratios and increasing the proportion of births attended to by skilled birth attendants. As most maternal complications occur during labour, in settings where a significant proportion of deliveries occur outside health facilities, most complications will start at the community level and those that choose to seek care at the health facility are likely to arrive in critical conditions. Since maternal morbidities are more frequent than maternal mortalities, this could contribute critical data towards maternal health interventions. Additionally, data will be collected from the victim herself and supplemented by carers during the morbidity incident. In settings where health systems are already overburdened, feedbacks of findings from the community morbidity review could stimulate a community. ( Aborigo RA, Allotey P, Reidpath D (2013) Contextualizing Maternal Morbidity through Community Case Reviews)

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Last date updated on April, 2024