Table 1.
Live births, maternal deaths, maternal mortality ratios, repartition (%) of the maternal deaths according to the obstetric causes, by country in 2003/04
| Countries* | Live births (n) | Maternal deaths (n) | MMR per 100 000 live births | Causes of maternal deaths (%)** | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| H | AFE | OTE | CHT | OD | AI | UK | ||||
| Austria1 | 155 912 | 10 | 6.4 | 0 | 10 | 10 | 20 | 10 | 50 | 0 |
| Belgium2 | 156 167 | 7 | 4.5 | |||||||
| Cyprus | No data | |||||||||
| Czech Republic | 191 349 | 19 | 9.9 | 11 | 16 | 21 | 0 | 26 | 21 | 5 |
| Denmark2 | 129 466 | 12 | 9.3 | |||||||
| Estonia3 | 27 028 | 8 | 29.6 | 0 | 20 | 0 | 20 | 60 | 0 | 0 |
| Finland | 114 018 | 9 | 7.9 | 11 | 11 | 0 | 11 | 44 | 22 | 0 |
| France | 1 529 280 | 107 | 7.0 | 18 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 28 | 8 | 4 |
| Germany4 | 1 320 820 | 67 | 5.1 | 7 | 5 | 7 | 2 | 16 | 16 | 473 |
| Greece5,2 | 104 355 | 2 | 1.9 | |||||||
| Hungary | 190 274 | 14 | 7.4 | 14 | 0 | 14 | 0 | 36 | 29 | 7 |
| Ireland | No data | |||||||||
| Italy4,6 | 539 066 | 17 | 3.2 | 18 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 53 | 6 | 63 |
| Latvia | 41 340 | 5 | 12.1 | 0 | 20 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 60 | 0 |
| Lithuania | 61 017 | 6 | 9.8 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 17 | 67 | 0 | 0 |
| Luxembourg7 | 27 252 | 2 | 7.3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 100 | 0 | 0 |
| Malta | 7923 | 0 | 0.0 | |||||||
| The Netherlands | 362 012 | 32 | 8.8 | 9 | 0 | 13 | 13 | 13 | 34 | 19 |
| Norway2 | 113 409 | 4 | 3.5 | |||||||
| Poland | 707 203 | 31 | 4.4 | 39 | 13 | 3 | 6 | 39 | 0 | 0 |
| Portugal2 | 221 945 | 17 | 7.7 | |||||||
| Slovakia | No data | |||||||||
| Slovenia7 | 34 907 | 4 | 11.5 | 50 | 0 | 25 | 0 | 0 | 25 | 0 |
| Spain | 896 472 | 41 | 4.6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 25 | 75 | 0 | 0 |
| Sweden2 | 200 316 | 4 | 2.0 | |||||||
| United Kingdom | 1 411 545 | 108 | 7.7 | 6 | 14 | 8 | 9 | 41 | 22 | 0 |
| All countries | 8 308 853 | 519 | 6.2 | 13 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 32 | 17 | 8 |
| Countries with <10% of unknown causes | 6 626 021 | 420 | 6.3 | |||||||
AFE, amniotic fluid embolism; AI, all indirect; CHT, complications of hypertension; H, obstetric haemorrhage; OD, other direct (other direct obstetric causes: chorioamnionitis/sepsis, abortion/ectopic pregnancy; anaesthetic; uterine rupture and others); OTE, Other thromboembolisms; UK, unknown.
:1In Austria indirect causes of maternal death are registered since 2004. 2Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Norway, Portugal and Sweden provided no data on maternal mortality by cause of death. 3Estonia provided data for the years 2004 and 2005, and Slovenia provided data for the years 2001 and 2002. 4Germany and Italy provided data on maternal mortality by cause of death for 1 year only, respectively 2004 and 2002. 5Greece provided data for 1 year, 2003. 6Italy provided data on maternal mortality by cause of death based on ICD-9 codes. 7Luxembourg provided data on maternal death for the years 2000–2004 and Slovenia for the years 2001 and 2002.
We are very concerned by the fact that calculating percentages with so small numbers sometimes is not pertinent, but we need to have the same presentation for all the members of the EU.