Box 1.

Definitions of maternal deaths (World Health Organization 2010).

Maternal death: Death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of the end of the pregnancy (the puerperium) from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management, but not from accidental or incidental causes.

Direct: Deaths resulting from obstetric complications of the pregnant state (pregnancy, labour and puerperium), from interventions, omissions, incorrect treatment or from a chain of events resulting from any of the above. Examples include genital tract sepsis, hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and thrombosis.

Indirect: Deaths resulting from previous existing disease, or disease that developed during pregnancy and which was not the result of direct obstetric causes, but which was aggravated by the physiological effects of pregnancy. Examples include cardiovascular disease, neurological disorders, non-genital infections and psychiatric causes.