Obstetric near-miss and maternal death: the case of Ayder Teaching Hospital, Mekelle, Ethiopia

AbstractObjective: To study severe acute maternal morbidity and maternal death in Ayder teaching Hospital.Methodology: Facility-based survey of severe acute maternal morbidity and maternal death with consecutive entry of casesfrom records for all pregnant, recently delivered or aborted patients who appeared and were admitted to Ayder referral teachingHospital from January, 2008 through December, 2010.Results: There were 2107 hospitalizations for maternal health services; of these, 204 were severe acute maternal morbiditiesand 9 direct maternal deaths with almost 23 severe acute morbidities for each maternal death, with an overall rate of severeacute maternal morbidity of 101 per 1000 deliveries and a maternal mortality ratio of 427 per 100,000 live births.Conclusion: In the era of countdown to 2015 and with the meager chance of Millennium Development Goals (MDG5) beingachieved in many African countries, including Ethiopia, the analysis of severe acute maternal morbidity along with maternaldeath should be a new paradigm in the assessment of maternal health and its progress at all levels. Ayder Teaching Hospitalshould have its own uniform criteria for inclusion of severe acute maternal morbidity based on other hospitals’ experiences andthe scientific plausibility to tackle facility-based avoidable severe maternal morbidity and mortality. Furthermore, a prospectivestudy should be done to exactly know the level of substandard care(Ethiopian Journal of Reproductive Health , 2012,6(1): 56-63).