Trends in maternal mortality in Tamale Teaching Hospital, Ghana.

OBJECTIVE To determine the yearly maternal mortality ratio over the period 2006-2010 and trends in the causes of 139 audited maternal deaths from 2008-2010 at the Tamale Teaching Hospital in Ghana STUDY DESIGN Retrospective descriptive review of maternal deaths SETTING Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Tamale Teaching Hospital METHODS Data on maternal deaths that occurred over the review period were obtained from the patient folders, departmental monthly reports, midwifery monthly returns, audit reports, theatre, intensive care unit, maternity, gynaecology and the labour ward records. RESULTS There were 280 maternal deaths from 1(st) January 2006 to 31(st) December 2010. The maternal mortality ratio dropped from 1870 per 100,000 live births in 2006 to 493 per 100,000 live births in 2010, a fall of nearly 74%. Using 2008 as the baseline, maternal mortality ratio dropped from 842 per 100,000 live births in 2008 to 493 per 100,000 live births in 2010, a fall of 41.4%. The main causes of 139 audited maternal deaths from 2008 to 2010 were sepsis (19.8%) hypertensive disorders(18.6%), haemorrhage (15.8%), unsafe abortion (11.5%), obstructed labour (5.7%), anaemia (8.7%), sickle cell disease (5.7%) and malaria (5.0%). The ages of the 139 audited maternal deaths ranged from 14-48 years; with mean age of 26.5 ± 4.6 years. Nearly 50% of the maternal deaths were aged 20-29 years and about 10% were 14-19 years. Eighteen(13%) of the maternal deaths were from towns over 150 km from Tamale. CONCLUSION There has been significant reduction in maternal mortality at the Tamale Teaching Hospital, it is however still unacceptably high.