Maternal Mortality at the Teaching Hospital of Mother and Child Lagoon (CHU-MEL) in Benin: A Preventable Drama?

Introduction: The maternal mortality ratio in developing countries is 239/ 100,000 live births (LV) in 2015, compared to 12/100,000 live births (LV) in developed countries. This study aims to analyze the avoidability of maternal deaths at the CHU-MEL from 2015 to 2019. Patients and Method: This was a descriptive analytical study with retrospective data collection from January 1st 2015 to August 31st 2019, i.e. 56 months. The data were collected from medical records, maternal death registers, anaesthesia registers. They were entered and analyzed using Epi info version 7 software. The associations between avoidability of death and aetiologies were tested using Chi2 or Fisher’s test as appropriate. The threshold for statistical significance was 5%. Results: The maternal mortality ratio over 5 years was 905 maternal deaths per 100,000 LV. The age of the deceased women ranged from 15 to 44 years, with an average of 29.09 ± 7.04 years. They were illiterate or primary educated (47.02%), married (64.50%) primigravida or paucigravidae (47.02%) and primiparous or pauciparous (59.52%). Of the 151 maternal deaths, (90.73%) were deemed preventable. Delay was the main reason for maternal death, and 82.11% had at least one type of delay. There was no significant difference between the avoidability of death and the main aetiologies of haemorrhage (p = 0.865), infections (p = 0.208) and hypertensive complications (p = 0.438). Conclusion: The maternal mortality ratio during the study period was 905 maternal deaths per 100,000 LV. Deaths were preventable in 90.73% of cases. The avoidability factors found were varied.