ABSTRACT
Maternal mortality has been describe as the death of women while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy. Kutungare village under Igabi Local Government Area is not an exemption to the effect of maternal mortality as research shown that most of the pregnant women suffer from issues related to maternal mortality due to the lack of awareness and high level of illiteracy or exposure to the effect of maternal mortality. Some of the most peculiar problems facing the women in Kutungare which is located out sketch of Kaduna main city are ignorance, poverty, home delivery and inadequate maternal centres which are some of the factors that contribute to maternal death in Kutungare community. However, there is urgent intervention and need for the government to organize sensitization programmes on awareness of the effect of maternal mortality and also to rehabilitate the existing health facility like provision of electricity, deployment of more medical personnel to the community, provision of ambulance for emergency situations. Therefore the further researcher should collectively expand the knowledge on how to minimize the maternal mortality rate not only through this state but also to the nation and worldwide in general.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
- Background of the study
Maternal mortality, also known a maternal death, continues to be the major cause of death among women of reproductive age in many countries and remains a serious public health issue especially in developing countries (WHO 2007). As explained in Shah and Say (2007), a maternal death is defined as the death of a women while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management but not from accidental or incidental causes. Globally, the estimated number of maternal deaths worldwide in 2005 was 536,000 up from 529,000 in 2000. According to the WHO factsheet (2008) 1500 women die from pregnancy or pregnancy related complication every day. Most of these deaths occur in developing countries and most are avoidable of all the health statistics compiled by the WHO, the largest discrepancy between developed and developing countries occurred in maternal mortality. UJAH et al. (2005) noted that while 25 percent females of reproductive age lived in developed countries. The contributed only 1 percent of maternal deaths worldwide.
Nigeria has been mentioned by the United Nations as having one of the highest rates the top medical causes of maternal mortality in the world. Reducing high maternal mortality ration is not just a technical and medical challenge but largely a political one which requires the attention and commitment of political leaders. Mothers are the key to the provision of health services for children, she has been neglected and exploited by health service, traditionally to serve infants. As Nigeria is till passing through various stages of development many women still deliver at home without attending antenatal clinics, Kaduna State being part of Nigeria also many cases maternal mortality rate. This study is aimed at finding mortality rate occur due to obstetric hemorrhage. Other include infections following childbirth, unsafe abortion, eclampsia and obstructed labor. Experts agree that these causes are largely treatable and preventable. The root causes of high maternal mortality in Nigeria include weak development planning, poverty, illiteracy and low utilization of formal maternal health care services.
