Table 1.
Maternal health indicators in the study hospitals in Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria as compared to findings from the WHO MCS Study
| Country | Data collection period (2012–2013) | Live births (LB) | Maternal deaths | Near-miss cases | SMOR per 1000 LBc | MNMR per 1000 LBd | MNM mortality ratioe | MI (%)f |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Egypt | 12 weeks | 2641 | 3 | 32 | 13.3 | 12.1 | 11:1 | 8.6 |
| Lebanon | 41 weeksa | 1171 | 0 | 5 | 4.3 | 4.3 | 5:0 | 0.0 |
| Palestine | 14.5 weeks | 1244 | 0 | 16 | 12.9 | 12.9 | 16:0 | 0.0 |
| Syria | 12 weeks | 4007 | 3 | 18 | 5.2 | 4.5 | 6:1 | 14.3 |
| All | 9063 | 6 | 71 | 8.5 | 7.8 | 11.8:1 | 7.8 | |
| Overall WHO MCS results (N = 29) b | 306,771 | 486 | 2538 | 9.9 | 8.3 | 5.2:1 | 16.1 | |
| WHO MCS–Countries with moderate MMR(N = 15) b | 134,545 | 49 | 824 | 6.5 | 6.1 | 16.8:1 | 5.6 |
aDue to the low average annual number of deliveries in RHUH, the team decided to continue data collection for a longer period of time than the other study sites
bSource [21]:
cSMOR - Severe Maternal Outcome Ratio: the number of women with life-threatening conditions (MNM + MD) per 1000 live births (LB). This indicator gives an estimate of the amount of care and resources that would be needed in an area or facility (SMOR = MNM + MD/LB) [1]
dMNMR-MNM Ratio: the number of maternal near-miss cases per 1000 live births (MNMR = MNM/LB). Similarly to the SMOR, this indicator gives an estimation of the amount of care and resources that would be needed in an area or facility [1]
eMaternal near-miss mortality ratio (MNM: 1 MD):the ratio between maternal near-miss cases and maternal deaths. Higher ratios indicate better care [1]
f[Maternal] Mortality Index (MI): the number of maternal deaths divided by the number of women with life-threatening conditions expressed as a percentage (MI = MD/MNM + MD). The higher the index the more women with life-threatening conditions die (low quality of care), whereas the lower the index the fewer the women with life-threatening conditions die (better quality of care) [1]