Levels and Causes of Maternal Mortality in Southern India

Most studies of maternal mortality are hospital based. However, in developing countries, where many such deaths take place in the home, hospital statistics do not reflect the true extent of maternal mortality. Furthermore, the socioeconomic and demographic factors and health behavior affecting maternal mortality are rarely known. A study conducted in 1986 in South India demonstrates a new approach to investigating maternal mortality that combines the collection of information from hospital and health-facility records, field surveys, and case-control studies. The findings from this study indicate that there were 7.98 maternal deaths per 1,000 live births. Approximately one-half of the deaths occurred in the home or on the way to the hospital. Maternal deaths accounted for 36 percent of mortality for women of reproductive age. Analysis reveals that many of these deaths were preventable and that significant differentials existed with regard to demographic, social, and behavioral factors between the cases of maternal deaths and the controls.