MATERNAL MORTALITY: NATURAL RISK TO WOMEN

Abstract

Maternal mortality has global impurtance. It has assumed both local and interna- tional dimensions, in spite of assessment challenges. This is supported by the fact that in some parts of the world, vital registration systems are either inadequate or totally absent, thereby making the scanty available information unreliable. Avail- able statistics reveal that there are at least twelve causes of maternal mortality with Abortion, Hemorrhage, Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and Tetanus recording the highest rates. Due to the complexity involved in determining the actual cause of maternal mortality, the study revealed that factors such as Medi- cal, Health service, Reproduction, Unwanted Pregnancy, socio-economic con- tribute to maternal mortality. A survey involved two randomly selected private hospitals in Ajegunle, Nigeria. The records from these two hospitals were exam- 2 ined using the X - test for independency. The results tend to agree with the patterns obtained in other parts of the low-income groups of the world.