Introduction

In the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and related health problems, tenth revision, 1992 (ICD-10), World Health Organization (WHO) defines maternal death as the death of a woman during pregnancy or within forty two days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the site and duration of pregnancy, from any cause aggravated by or related to pregnancy or its management but not from incidental or accidental causes.¹

In 2010 it was estimated that 278,000 women died from pregnancy related complications. The enormity of the matter was brought into focus with the launch of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in September 2000. MDG 5 strived to improve maternal health by reducing maternal mortality by 75% and achieve universal access to maternal health services by 2015.²

Maternal mortality ratio is defined as the ratio of number of maternal deaths in a given period of time to the number of live births during the same period of time. The global maternal mortality ratio decreased from 385 deaths per 1,00,000 live births in 1990, to 216 in 2015, corresponding to a 43.9% decline and an annual continuous rate of reduction of 2.3%.³ In India the maternal mortality ratio has declined from 556 in 1990 to 174 in 2015. Annual rate of reduction from 1990 to 2015 has been 4.6%.¹

India has made a significant progress in improving the overall health status of its population, but it is far from satisfaction.⁴Most maternal deaths and pregnancy complications can be prevented if pregnant women have access to good quality antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal care, and if certain harmful birth practices are avoided.⁵

Studying trends in maternal deaths could help redirect efforts to tackle the prevailing dominant causes of these deaths in local settings. The aim of the present study was to determine the trend in maternal mortality at Goa medical college over a 10-year period and determine the specific causes of death.

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Queena Sheryl Dsouza

Kanachur Institute of Medical Sciences