Maternal Mortality in Assiut Governorate, Egypt, 2009

Background: Globally an estimated 287 000 maternal deaths occurred in 2010. Methodology: The study is descriptive one aimed to highlight both avoidable and non-avoidable causes of maternal mortality, in addition to other relevant issues in order to formulate the appropriate strategies to overcome the avoidable causes of maternal mortality in Assiut Governorate. The relevant data of the study obtained through secondary analysis of data of maternal mortality records of Assiut Health Directorate (MCH Department), 2009. Data of maternal deaths collected by the concerned medical staff through a special questionnaire designed by MOHP (Maternal Mortality Surveillance System).This questionnaire covered demographic data of the target women, place, date and time of death relative to pregnancy (i.e. during abortion, labor, puerperium), full obstetric history, thorough & meticulous detail of last pregnancy, type of obstetric care delivered to the target woman (i.e. place & time of initiation of last labor, associated complications, outcome of the baby …..etc). Results: Maternal mortality in Assiut Governorate, 2009 was 68 / 100,000 live births. 44% of deaths happened during perperium and 24% during pregnancy. 34.6% of deaths occurred at home and 25.3% occurred among nulli-prous women. Only 14% of women completed their antenatal care visits, about one-half of cases (51.5%) seek antenatal care once or twice. Hypertensive diseases of pregnancy was the first direct cause of death (27.1%), followed by unexpected sudden death which may be due to pulmonary embolism (18.6%), then postpartum hemorrhage (16.9%), and puerperal sepsis (11.9%).Conclusion: Maternal mortality still represents a major public health problem in Upper Egypt