After publication of our article, “Pregnancy-related mortality in southern Nepal between 2001 and 2006: independent estimates from a prospective, population-based cohort and a direct sisterhood survey” (1), subsequent activities at our research site in Sarlahi, Nepal, revealed a possible mismatch between 1) the database recording study-specific information between 2002 and 2006 and 2) the overall surveillance site database that maintains and continuously updates vital status information throughout the study area. After some investigation, it was revealed that in certain instances, the former database was incorrectly updated, prompting a 100% follow-up at the homes of all women reported to have died during the 2002–2006 period. This in-field investigation ultimately reduced the number of pregnancy-related deaths observed through the prospective data collection from 121 to 62, thereby reducing our prospective pregnancy-related mortality ratio (PRMR) estimate from 511 (95% confidence interval (CI): 426, 611) to 262 (95% CI: 201, 336). There was no effect on the PRMR estimate derived by means of the sisterhood method (PRMR = 529, 95% CI: 419, 638). This change results in a difference between the estimates derived from the two methods that substantially reduces clarity regarding the true maternal mortality situation in Sarlahi District during this time period (2002–2006). This lack of clarity reduces our ability to make conclusions as to how these estimates might inform the observed national decline in maternal mortality reported through national demographic health studies (1996, 2006) and a more recent 8-district study of maternal health (2–4). Therefore, we retract the original manuscript and apologize for our error.
References
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