Abstract
Maternal mortality has been recognised as a public health problem in the developing countries. The situation concerning maternal mortality in Nepal remained unexplored and vague until the early 1990s. By using 1996 Nepal Family Health Survey, this study discusses the maternal mortality situation in Nepal and analyses the differentials in maternal mortality by place of residence, region, ethnic and religious groups, age at death, and parity. Almost 28 percent of deaths of women in reproductive age was accountable to maternal causes. Logistic regression analysis shows ‘ethnicity,’ ‘age of women,’ and ‘number of births’ as strong predictors of maternal mortality. A number of policy recommendations are suggested to help lower maternal mortality.
Highlights
Social scientists admit that maternal mortality is an important, complex, and neglected field of study in the developing countries, which has only in the late 1980s been recognised as a public health problem (Boerma, 1987; Graham et al, 1989; Basch, 1990)
Other studies report that more than half of maternal deaths occur in the postpartum period (Li et al, 1996; Ministry of Health, 1998) and that most postpartum deaths in the developing countries including Nepal occur within six hours to seven days of delivery (Ministry of Health, 1998)
The problem of high maternal mortality was noticed by the Nepalese development planners and health experts only a few years ago
Summary
Social scientists admit that maternal mortality is an important, complex, and neglected field of study in the developing countries, which has only in the late 1980s been recognised as a public health problem (Boerma, 1987; Graham et al, 1989; Basch, 1990). The Nepal Family Health Survey (1996) estimates Nepal’s maternal mortality ratio (MMR) to be 539 per 100,000 live-births (Ministry of Health, 1997a), which was the highest among the South-Asian countries at that time (United Nations, 2000).. The Demographic Health Survey (DHS) 2006 of Nepal shows its MMR as 281 per 100,000 live-births, a decrease by almost 50% (Nepal Demographic and Health Survey 2006, 2007) All these years, the strategies to deal with high maternal mortality in Nepal have often been omitted from social and health development policies as in most other developing countries. The strategies to deal with high maternal mortality in Nepal have often been omitted from social and health development policies as in most other developing countries Why has this happened? In this paper, relevant literature will be reviewed; the situation of maternal mortality in Nepal will be explored; and the available data will be analysed to examine the differentials in maternal mortality by age, parity, place of residence, region, ethnicity, and religion, and to determine what factors affect maternal mortality the most
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