Abstract

Ibrahim Isa A. 1 *, Owoeye Gani I. O. 2 and Obilahi Abhulimen1

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.