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Every year about half a million women die from complications of pregnancy, parturition and puerperium, most of which are preventable. The purpose of this thesis was to chart the distribution and decline in maternal mortality in Sweden between 1751 and 1980, and furthermore to characterize positive (predisposing) factors and negative (protective) factors of maternal mortality. Maternal mortality declined from 900 to 6.6 per 100,000 live births in these 230 years. Maternal deaths accounted for 10070 of all female deaths in the reproductive ages between 1781 and 1785, but only 0.2.0/0 between 1976 and 1980. However, in the 19th century 40-450/0 of the female deaths in the most active childbearing ages were maternal deaths. The children left motherless had an extremely high mortality. Indirect maternal deaths and puerperal sepsis accounted for the bulk of maternal deaths in the rural areas. Only a minority of maternal deaths occurred in lying-in hospitals. Midwifery services in rural areas and antiseptic techniques were most effective in preventing maternal deaths during the late 19th century. The changing distribution ofage and parity amongst the parturients had a definite impact on the mortality decline, enhanced by time, contributing to 500/0 of the mortality decline over the last 15 years. The expontential decline of cause-specific mortality and case fatality rates during the last 40 years is furthermore explained by the emergence ofmodern medicine - antibiotics, antenatal and obstetric care. The earlier serious problem of illegal abortions was eradicated by legislation and changes in hospital practice. The maternal mortality decline has levelled out during the 1970s, the relative importance of embolism as a cause of death is increasing. Advanced age and intercurrent disease are the most difficult risk factors to overcome. To conclude, this study indicates that the reason why maternal mortality has declined faster than otherhealth indices is that the major part of the maternal deaths can be prevented by medical technology, including family planning, antenatal and obstetric care. This experience should be of interest to developing countries where high rates of maternal mortality prevails.

This study presents estimates of maternal mortality for India from two indirect procedures, the sisterhood method and a regression method involving sex differentials in adult mortality, and compares them with estimates available from other sources. The sisterhood method is applied to the data collected in a human development survey that covered all rural areas of India in 1994, while the latter method is applied to the data on mortality and fertility rates from India's Sample Registration System. The level of maternal mortality for the early 1980s implied by the sisterhood method is found to be about 15 percent lower than the estimate for the same period derived from the method that uses the data on sex differentials in adult mortality. The estimate for the 1990s from the latter method is consistent, however, with the direct estimates available from the National Family Health Survey and the Sample Registration System. The study also discusses the socioeconomic differentials in maternal mortality implied by the sisterhood data, and spatial and temporal variations in maternal mortality derived from the regression method.

This presentation was created for a project assigned during Spring 2021 for the Texas A&M University course, HIST 489: Black Lives Matter at Texas A&M, in Texas, & the World. This course was taught by Dr. Cynthia A. Bouton. Students in this class examined the historical record, identified and researched critical issues, and created projects demonstrating the relationship between past and present. ; Black women face three times the risk of dying from a pregnancy-related cause than White women (CDC). This project explored what Black maternal mortality rates (MMR) are like within the state of Texas. It recounts the formation of Texas's Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Task Force as well as actions taken and not taken by Texas's legislature surrounding this topic. Evaluations and comparisons were made of the data collected from Marian MacDorman's 2018 study of Texas's maternal mortality trends and a study done by researchers within the state of Texas on MMR in the same year.

This report presents the first population‐based estimates of maternal morality in Vietnam. All the deaths of women aged 15–49 in 1994–95 in three provinces of Vietnam were identified and classified by cause. Maternal mortality was the fifth most frequent cause of death. The maternal mortality ratio was 155 deaths per 100,000 live births. This ratio compares with the World Health Organization's estimates of 430 such deaths globally and 390 for Asia. The maternal mortality ratio in the delta regions of these provinces was half that of the mountainous and semimountainous regions. Because a larger proportion of the Vietnamese population live in delta regions than elsewhere, the maternal mortality ratio for Vietnam as a whole may be lower than that of the three provinces studied. Maternal mortality is low in Vietnam primarily because a relatively high proportion of deliveries take place in clinics and hospitals, where few women die in childbirth. Also, few women die of the consequences of induced abortion in Vietnam because the procedure is legal and easily available.

Every year, worldwide, about 42 million women with unintended pregnancies choose abortion, and nearly half of these procedures, 20 million, are unsafe. Some 68,000 women die of unsafe abortion annually, making it one of the leading causes of maternal mortality (13%). Of the women who survive unsafe abortion, 5 million will suffer long-term health complications. Unsafe abortion is thus a pressing issue. Both of the primary methods for preventing unsafe abortion—less restrictive abortion laws and greater contraceptive use—face social, religious, and political obstacles, particularly in developing nations, where most unsafe abortions (97%) occur. Even where these obstacles are overcome, women and health care providers need to be educated about contraception and the availability of legal and safe abortion, and women need better access to safe abortion and postabortion services. Otherwise, desperate women, facing the financial burdens and social stigma of unintended pregnancy and believing they have no other option, will continue to risk their lives by undergoing unsafe abortions.

The scale of maternal mortality and morbidity today is staggering. This book focuses on a vital part of a human rights response to maternal mortality, viz. accountability. Accountability encompasses monitoring, review and redress at the local, national and international levels. The book's context includes the UN Human Rights Council maternal mortality and morbidity resolutions, as well as Millennium Development Goal 5. It comes out of a roundtable conference held in Geneva during 2010 that examined maternal mortality, human rights and accountability and provided a forum where maternal healt.