Pregnancy or delivery-related maternal deaths occur every 10 minutes in Nigeria. This amounts to a whopping 53,000 maternal deaths every year and for every woman who dies, 30-50 more women suffer childbirth-related injuries, infections, or diseases. This research was conducted to explore the factors associated with maternal deaths from the perspectives of health workers in the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Rivers State, Nigeria. A mixed method approach involving the extraction of data from medical folders associated with maternal deaths from January 2013 - December 2017 and qualitative interviews with health workers. The majority of maternal deaths at the study occurred in those aged 30 – 39 years, unbooked and these deaths were mostly due to hypertensive disorders (24%). The commonest clinical presentation was seizures (13.5%) and the common reported cause of death was organ failure (29.2%). Maternal mortality is still common although there have been decrease over the years. Recommendations included increasing public enlightenment campaigns and education of the communities especially the rural ones on the importance of antenatal care and delivery taken in health facilities by trained attendants. Social health insurance should also be strengthened to improve access to preventative care and reduce the burden of catastrophic health expenditures among households with pregnant women. The need for proper management of patients’ health records was also advocated.

Keywords: Maternal, deaths, mortality records, related factors, causes

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Dr Sede Joy Chidinma

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