Maternal mortality in West Africa

Background. According to estimates of maternal mortality rates from WHO/UNICEF, the West African rates appear to be among the world’s highest. The precision of these estimates from general mortality models is far from ideal and no information on the distribution of causes of death is provided. The principal objective of our study is to describe the maternal mortality, estimation of the rates and distribution of obstetric causes, from a population based survey of pregnant women carried out in West Africa. We also present the main characteristics of the deaths that occurred, including avoidable aspects.Methods. The survey included all the pregnant women living in seven defined areas, from December 1994 through June 1996, depending on the area. Twenty thousand three hundred and twenty-six pregnant women (94.3% of all those identified) agreed to participate and 19,545 were followed throughout the second trimester of pregnancy, delivery and the puerperium. Physicians from the survey team made special enquiries a...