ESTIMATION OF MATERNAL MORTALITY USING THE INDIRECT SISTERHOOD METHOD

(A CASE STUDY OF FIKA L.G.A., YOBE STATE, NIGERIA. BY HAUWA LARAI)

By

Author

Presented To

Department of Medicine

ABSTRACT
Lack of reliable and timely population-based data is one of the major constraints in the planning, management and evaluation of programmed aimed at reducing the levels of maternal mortality. The study area, Fika Local Government Area, is a rural L.G.A. with hilly and rocky terrain and poor road network. In addition to a small number of private chemists, government health facilities for the L.G.A. include one general hospital and a number of Primary Health Care Facilities, dispensaries and health posts. Most people are subsistence farmers. Houses mainly have thatched roofs and mud walls and often have inadequate water supply and poor waste disposal. The aims and objective of the study was to ascertain the level of maternal mortality, the lifetime risk of dying from maternal causes and the proportional maternal mortality rate among women of childbearing age group in Fika L.G.A. and, in light of the study, make recommendations on strategies for the prevention of maternal mortality. Methodology In this study the indirect sisterhood method which is comparatively easy, reliable and cost effective community based cross sectional descriptive study was used to estimate the maternal mortality ratio in Fika L.G.A., a rural L.G.A. in Yobe state using a sample of 4,093 male and female respondents aged 15-49 years selected from 4 villages by three staged cluster sampling. The mean age of the respondents was 33.5 ? 9.8 years, 31.6 ? 9.5 years for the female respondents and 35.8 ? 9.7 for the male respondents. 13 The study collected data by means of four questions about the death of adult sisters based on the assumption that among siblings that survive to adulthood at least one becomes a principal source of information on all his or her sisters who have reached reproductive age. Results The study showed that the maternal mortality ratio among the study population was 3,200/100,000 Live births, the proportional maternal death to the total deaths from all causes for women of reproductive age is 46.5% and the overall lifetime risk of dying a maternal death by the end of reproductive period is 0.181 or 1 in every 6 women. Conclusion In conclusion, the level of maternal mortality ratio and estimated lifetime risk of dying a maternal death were found to be very high in Fika L.G.A. It is therefore recommended that community involvement in the planning, implementation and supervision of reproductive health services and the integration of reproductive health services into existing health programmed especially at the primary health care level as well as provision of good communication systems, emergency transportation and women empowerment educationally, economically, socially, and politically will increase access to family planning information and services, skilled attendance at delivery, emergency obstetric care, prevention and management of abortion complications, better reproductive health care for adolescents and the prevention and early management of sexually transmitted infections including HIV/Aids, which will greatly reduce and maternal.