Maternal mortality in Southern Iraq Marshes

Abstract EN

Background: Maternal mortality is suffering a longstanding ignorance in most of the developing countries including Iraq which lies with countries that have poor registration systems.

In addition, maternal mortality is especially important since the WHO have put the reduction of MMR as one of the six health related MDGs adopted by United Nations and declared in 2000.

Methods : The principal method was the sisterhood method which is especially recommended for the situation of Iraq.

It involved household visits and made successful interviews with 3683 females in the reproductive age.

The questionnaire used was a bit modified from the original survey questions invented for this approach.

Results : The estimated maternal mortality ratio of 92 / 100 000 live births which looks reasonable if compared to the national estimates made by the Iraqi Ministry of Health, Ministry of Planning and other organizations in the relevant time period.

Conclusion : The current estimate of maternal mortality in marshes of 92 per 100000 live births is reasonable within national context.

The present study revealed a tendency for maternal mortality to have declined over years.

Most of the causes of female mortality and maternal mortality are preventable.