{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.028268551236749116, 'fraction_numerical': 0.018551236749116608, 'mean_word_length': 5.603498542274052, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Maternal mortality at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital Benin City, Nigeria.


 A study of 165 maternal deaths at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City over a 13-year period (from April 1, 1973 to December 31, 1985) is presented. All patients' case files were recovered from the central records library and each case file was carefully analyzed. With a total delivery of 29,324, the maternal mortality rate, inclusive of death from abortion, was 563/100,000 deliveries. There was a general increase in maternal mortality rate with age and this became alarming from 35 years. There was an equally high mortality rate among teenagers, mainly accounted for by illegally induced abortion. Indeed, abortion accounted for 72% of teenage mortality. A statistically significant association between maternal deaths and parity (p, 0.001) was observed. The most important causes of death were hemorrhage with a total of 26 out of 42 deaths, sepsis, and abortion. Other important causes were hypertensive disorders such as eclampsia, liver and respiratory disease, anemia, trophoblastic diseases, caesarean sections, and acute renal failure. Additional causes of maternal deaths include tetanus, sickle-cell disease, anesthetic death, drug reactions, pulmonary embolism, acute pyogenic meningitis, typhoid disease, urinary bladder tumor, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and carcinoma of the breast thyroid. Factors identified with these deaths included such health services factors as deficient medical treatment of obstetric complications, lack of adequate personnel at primary and secondary health care levels, lack of access to maternal health services, and consequently, lack of prenatal care. Extreme reproductive age, grandmultiparity, and unwanted pregnancies, especially among teenagers, also contributed to maternal deaths. Overhaul of the maternal health care services at national level to include organization of such programs as provision of adequate blood transfusion facilities, prompt treatment of infections, early referrals of patients at risk to secondary and tertiary health centers, intensified family planning programs, and liberalization of abortion laws are recommended in order to reduce the unacceptably high maternal mortality.
