Maternal deaths have been recognized as an area of maternal care that requires urgent attention. Every minute of every day, somewhere in the world, a woman dies as a result of complications arising during pregnancy and childbirth. The majority of these deaths are avoidable. The estimated number of maternal deaths in 2000 for the world was 529,000 according to WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA estimates. These deaths were almost equally divided between Africa (251,000) and Asia (253,000), with about (22,000) occurring in Latin America and the Caribbean, and less than (2,500) in the more developed regions of the world. Definitions and measures of maternal mortality DefinitionsThe Tenth of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) defines a maternal death as the death of a woman pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management but not from accidental or incidental causes.Measures of maternal mortality There are three distinct measures of maternal mortality in widespread use: the maternal mortality ratio, the maternal mortality rate and the lifetime risk of maternal death. The most commonly used measure is the maternal mortality ratio, that is the number deaths during a given time period per 100,000 live births during the same time period. The maternal mortality rate reflects the frequency with which woman are exposed to risk through fertility. The lifetime risk of maternal death takes into account both the probability of becoming pregnant and the probability of dying as a result of that pregnancy cumulated across a woman's reproductive years.Maternal mortality ratio is considered one of the best indicators of women's health and of the quality and accessibility to health services, and it shows the greatest disparity between developed and developing countries. The world figure for the MMR is estimated to be 400 per 100,000 live births. By region, the MMR was highest in Africa (830), followed by Asia (330), Oceania (240), Latin America and the Caribbean (190) and the developed countries (20). In the terms of the lifetime risk of death the highest is in sub-Saharan Africa, with as many as 1 woman in 16 facing the risk of maternal death in the course of her lifetime, compared with 1 in 2,800 in developed regions as shown in the table below
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