Prepare and prevent rather than repair and repent: Study of maternal mortality in tertiary care hospital

Context: Maternal death signifies the quality of healthcare provided in the population. It is the young, relatively healthy women who die of various reasons. Audit of such mortality would prevent the recurrence by taking appropriate measures. Aims: To find the causes of maternal mortality. Settings and Design: Retrospective observational study. Materials and Methods: All maternal deaths in a tertiary care referral center from January 2007 to September 2012 were studied for their demographic profile and causes of death. Results: All 62 women were referred from other healthcare units. Twenty-nine patients died within 24 h of admission and 33 women died after 24 h of admission. Death of 34 patients was due to direct obstetric causes and of 26 patients due to indirect obstetric causes. There were 2 maternal deaths due to accidental causes. Conclusions: The corrective action to prevent the recurrence of such deaths should be taken. Sepsis was found to be the commonest cause for maternal mortality followed by hemorrhage. It important to note that, in the present study, all mothers received antenatal care, had hospital delivery (none had home delivery), no teenage pregnancy or grand multigravidas, and no obstructed labor or rupture uterus, and yet they died. There is a change in the trend of causes of maternal mortality. Strengthening of the first referral units with equipment, blood bank, and adequately competent staff should be of prime importance. Continued medical education of the medial personnel at the periphery is required. Maternal deaths occur in inspite of atenatal care and hospital delivery which is alarming. Contributing factors may be delay in referral or the travel which should be looked in to inorder to minimize such death of young women.