A review of maternal near miss and maternal mortality at a tertiary referral centre

Author: 
Gurdip Kaur., Anju Gupta and ParneetKaur

Introduction: Maternal health status is always assessed through estimation of mortality, morbidity, growth and development. Maternal mortality ratio is one such indicator of mother and child health care and reflects the overall effectiveness of health system.For every woman who dies from causes related to child birth, it is estimated that there are twenty other who suffer pregnancy related illness or experience other severe consequences and escape death called Near miss cases. So by evaluating these cases with severe maternal outcome [both near miss and maternal death] one can learn about lacuna in maternal health care.
Aims & Objectives: As the focus is now shifting from maternal mortality to morbidity so the study was done to review various maternal near miss indicators
Material & Methods: This was a prospective observational study for a period of 1 year (August 2016 to July 2017) conducted in Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, GMC and Rajindra Hospital, Patiala, Punjab. Maternal mortality during same period was seen. The near miss cases were identified by the WHO criteria.Mortality indices of life threatening obstetric conditions were determined.
Results: The total number of live births during study period was 4008, total near miss cases were 65 and total maternal deaths were 53. Maternal near miss mortality ratio came out to be 1.22:1. Severe maternal outcome ratio 29.44/1000 The Maternal near miss ratio (MNMR) came out to be 16.22/1000 live births.
Conclusion: To increase the maternal near miss mortality ratio or to decrease the mortality index we need to have better policies for antenatal care, more of institutional deliveries and early referral to better equipped centres where all emergency services are available round the clock.

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DOI: 
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24327/ijcar.2017.6880.1033
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