Background:
Maternal mortality is one of the indicators in the
millennium development goal that is raising concern in achieving the set
target of reducing t
he rate by three
-
fourth by 2015. Women who die due
to pregnancy
-
related causes are in the prime of their lives and are
responsible for the health and well
-
being of their families.
Objective:
To assess patterns of maternal mortality and associated
factors:
at public hospitals in Tigray region, Ethiopia, 2010
-
2012.
Methods
: A hospital based case control study was done from May 2012
to December 2012 at public hospitals found in Tigray regional state.
Cases were mothes who died in hospital between July, 2010 t
o June,
2012 and controls were mothers who gave birth in the same hospital
during same period. Simple random sampling method was used to select
the case and controls. A ratio of four controls to one case was considered
to assure sufficient sample size. Dat
a were entered, cleared and analyzed
using SPSS window 16. Bivariate analysis was used to determine an
association between categorical variables and multiple logistic
regressions was used to identify factors association with maternal deaths.
Result:
A tot
al of
62 case and 248 controls were included in the study.
The mean age of the study subjects were 28.1
(range18
-
46) years of
cases and 26.8(rane17
-
42) years of controls respectively. Multivariate
logistic regression revealed that Midwives were 89% time
s low risk
for maternal mortality than Other Skill birth attendants [AOR=0.11;
95% CI(0.03
-
0.42)]
.
Similarly those who received antenatal care
[AOR=0.26; 95% CI(0.12
-
0.57)]
and women with length of labor less
than 24 hours
[AOR=0.27,95%CI(0.07
-
0.89)]
were less likely to die.
Conclusion and recommendation:
The finding of this study showed
that maternal death was significantly associated with, antenatal care,
Birth attended and prolonged labor
.
Therefore this finding suggests that
women awareness on impo
rtance of ante natal care should be raised,
consideration should be given on
masters of emergency obstetric
training and length of labor should be minimize by medical
interventions.