These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Maternal death in the booked and unbooked patients: University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital experience.
    Author: Briggs ND.
    Journal: Trop J Obstet Gynaecol; 1988; 1(1):26-9. PubMed ID: 12179272.
    Abstract:
    Between September 1983 and August 1986, there were 10,665 deliveries and 103 maternal deaths at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital. 12 of these deaths were from abortions and 4 from ectopic pregnancies giving an overall maternal mortality rate of 9.7/1000 deliveries. 24 of the mothers that died were booked (mortality rate 3.5/1000) and 63 were unbooked (mortality rate 17.8/10000. The principal clinical causes of death were the same in both booked and unbooked patients and included ruptured uterus booked 42%, unbooked 21%), bacterial infection booked 33%, unbooked 35%), and eclampsia (booked 13%, unbooked 14%). For the booked patients, other causes of maternal death include postpartum hemorrhage (17%), medical complications (8%), and anesthetic death (4%). Additional causes of death for the unbooked patients are postpartum hemorrhage (8%), antepartum hemorrhage (3%), severe anemia (6%), medical complications (13%), surgical complications (2%), and uncertain causes (3%). It was also observed that those who died undelivered mainly had ruptured uterus; 7 booked patients who died after spontaneous vertex deliveries died of postpartum hemorrhage, eclampsia, bacterial infection, and acute renal failure; and 13 patients were puerperal admissions. 17% of the deaths in the unbooked patients were from teenage pregnancies while none were from the booked patients. The age group 20-29 contributed 54% of deaths in the booked and 39% of deaths in the unbooked. Fetal outcome was very poor as 17% of the booked patients and 66% of the unbooked patients arrived at the hospital when their babies had already died in utero. Avoidable factors include the failure to have antenatal care which could prevent deaths from anemia, antepartum hemorrhage, and medical complications but not prevent deaths from rupture uterus; difficulties with means of transportation from patients' home to the hospital; harmful cultural practices; and operation difficulties within the hospital. The dominant adverse factors were illiteracy in the unbooked women (84%) and the effects of serious defects in the existing health services in the booked women such as problems with blood transfusions, availability of medical staff, and shortages of intravenous fluids, blood, and essential drugs and equipment. Formal education, antenatal care, and improved health services still remain the key to a large-scale reduction in maternal mortality.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]