Tracing shadows: How gendered power relations shape the impacts of maternal death on living children in Sub-Saharan Africa

Driven by the need to better understand the full and intergenerational toll of maternal mortality (MM), a mixed-methods study was conducted in four countries in sub-Saharan Africa to investigate the impacts of maternal death on families and children. The present analysis identifies gender as a fundamental driver not only of maternal, but also child health, through manifestations of gender inequity in house- hold decision making, labor and caregiving, and social norms dictating the status of women. Focus group discussions were conducted with community members, and in depth qualitative interviews with key- informants and stakeholders, in Tanzania, Ethiopia, Malawi, and South Africa between April 2012 and October 2013. Findings highlight that socially constructed gender roles, which define mothers as care- givers and fathers as wage earners, and which limit women's agency regarding childcare decisions, among other things, create considerable gaps when it comes to meeting child nutrition, education, and health care needs following a maternal death. Additionally, our findings show that maternal deaths have differential effects on boy and girl children, and exacerbate specific risks for girl children, including early marriage, early pregnancy, and school drop-out. To combat both MM, and to mitigate impacts on children, investment in health services interventions should be complemented by broader interventions regarding social protection, as well as aimed at shifting social norms and opportunity structures regarding gendered divisions of labor and power at household, community, and society levels.Web of Scienc

Using the new ICD-MM classification for attribution of cause of maternal death – a pilot study

Understanding the causes of and factors contributing to maternal deaths is critically important for development of interventions that reduce the global burden of maternal mortality and morbidity. The International Classification of Diseases—Maternal Mortality (ICD-MM) classification of cause of death during pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperium was applied to data obtained from maternal death reviews (MDR) for 4558 maternal deaths from five countries in sub-Saharan Africa. None of the data sets identified type of maternal death. Information obtained via MDR is generally sufficient to agree on classification of cause of death to the levels of type and group. The terms ‘underlying cause of death’ and ‘contributing conditions’ were used differently in different settings and a specific underlying cause of death was frequently not recorded. Application of ICD-MM resulted in the reclassification of 3.1% (9/285) of cases to the group ‘unanticipated complications of management’, previously recorded as obstetric haemorrhage or unknown. An increased number of cases were assigned to the groups pregnancy-related infection (5.6–10.2%) and pregnancies with abortive outcome (3.4–4.9%) when a clear distinction was made between women who died ‘with’ HIV/AIDS of obstetric causes (direct maternal death) and AIDS-related indirect maternal deaths (group ‘non-obstetric complications’). Similarly, anaemia and obstructed labour were more frequently identified as contributing factors than underlying cause of death. It would be helpful if MDR forms could have explicitly stated variables called: type, group and underlying cause of death as well as a dedicated section to the most frequently occurring contributing conditions recognised in that setting

Assigning cause of maternal death: a comparison of findings by a facility-based review team, an expert panel using the new ICD-MM cause classification and a computer-based program (InterVA-4)

Objective To compare methodology used to assign cause of and factors contributing to maternal death. Design Reproductive Age Mortality Study. Setting Malawi. Population Maternal deaths among women of reproductive age. Methods We compared cause of death as assigned by a facility-based maternal death review team, an expert panel using the International Classification of Disease, 10th revision (ICD-10) cause classification for deaths during pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperium (ICD-MM) and a computer-based probabilistic program (InterVA-4). Main outcome measures Number and cause of maternal deaths. Results The majority of maternal deaths occurred at a health facility (94/151; 62.3%). The estimated maternal mortality ratio was 363 per 100 000 live births (95% CI 307–425). There was poor agreement between cause of death assigned by a facility-based maternal death review team and an expert panel (κ = 0.37, 86 maternal deaths). The review team considered 36% of maternal deaths to be indirect and caused by non-obstetric complications (ICD-MM Group 7) whereas the expert panel considered only 17.4% to be indirect maternal deaths with 33.7% due to obstetric haemorrhage (ICD-MM Group 3). The review team incorrectly assigned a contributing condition rather than cause of death in up to 15.1% of cases. Agreement between the expert panel and InterVA-4 regarding cause of death was good (κ = 0.66, 151 maternal deaths). However, contributing conditions are not identified by InterVA-4. Conclusions Training in the use of ICD-MM is needed for healthcare providers conducting maternal death reviews to be able to correctly assign underlying cause of death and contributing factors. Such information can help to identify what improvements in quality of care are needed. Tweetable abstract For maternal deaths assigning cause of death is best done by an expert panel and helps to identify where quality of care needs to be improved