An audit of Maternal Near-miss and Mortality Cases in a Tertiary Healthcare Centre of Central India: A Retrospective Study

Background: In a country like India decrease in maternal mortality with growing advances has given rise for the need of a indicator of severe maternal morbidity-“maternal near-miss” (MNM) event World Health Organization (WHO) defines MNM “a woman who, being close to death, survives a complication that occurred during pregnancy, delivery or up to 42 days after the end of her pregnancy”.

Methodology: A one year cross sectional study was done at MTH Hospital, Indore a tertiary care referral hospital in Indore, Madhya Pradesh from January 2022 to December 2022. MNM were identified according to the WHO guidelines.

Results: During study period, 9963 live births, 143 maternal deaths and 166 “near-miss” cases were recorded. Among these 166 near-miss cases, Calculated MNM ratio was 16.6/1000 live births, the ratio of maternal death to MNM event was 1. 1/1, and overall Mortality index was 53.7%.

Conclusion: hemorrhage and hypertension were the two most common cause of near miss and deaths and Identification of preventable factors and special preventive actions would further enhance the quality of health care.