Evaluation of maternal mortality cases in the province of Elazig, Turkey, 2007-2013: a retrospective study.

The aim of this study was to determine the causes and factors influencing maternal mortality. All maternal deaths occurring between January 2007 and November 2013 in the Elazig Province of Turkey were retrospectively investigated. The maternal age, obstetric history, cause of death, encountered delay model of each case, as well as the overall number of annual live births in the Province were determined. The information of cases was obtained from Directorate of Public Health and hospital records.  Families or family doctors were also interviewed to obtain details about the circumstances surrounding each death. There were a total of 64,423 live births in the Province of Elazig between 2007- 2013. The number and ratio of maternal deaths due to direct and indirect causes were 12 and 18.6, respectively. The direct causes of maternal death were hypertensive diseases of pregnancy (n=5, 41.7%), obstetric hemorrhages (n=3, 25%) and pulmonary embolism (n=1, 8.3%). The indirect causes of death were cardiac diseases (n=2, 16.7%) and malignancy (n=1, 8.3%). When classified according to the "Three Delays Model", 2 cases were in the first delay model and 3 cases in the third delay model; the second delay model led to no maternal deaths. Hypertensive diseases of pregnancy are the leading cause of maternal mortality in our province. The preventable causes of maternal mortality and factors contributing to death must be identified to reduce the incidence.