Maternal mortality reduction: a need to focus actions on the prevention of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy

Table 1 Number of deaths, percentual decrease and contribution to maternal direct obstetric deaths in 1990 and 2017 by cause of death. Maternal direct obstetrics deaths.^a Global. 1990–2017. (n = 186). Estimated based on the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Maternal Health Atlas. Trends 1990–2017.(1)

Cause of the death	Number of deaths		Percentual decrease	Contribution to maternal direct obstetrics deaths (%)
Cause of the death	1990	2017	Percentual decrease	1990	2017
Maternal Haemorrhage	128,097	38,542	70.0	44.6	25.0
Sepsis and other maternal infections	38,398	21,230	44.7	13.4	13.7
Hypertensive disorders	35,921	29,374	18.2	12.5	19.0
Obstructed labour & uterine rupture	21,453	12,976	23.6	7.5	8.4
Abortion & miscarriage	26,015	17,440	33.0	9.7	11.3
Ectopic pregnancy	13,417	10,201	24.0	4.7	6.6
Other maternal disorders	23,688	24,828	––-	8.9	16.1
Total number of maternal direct obstetrics deaths	286,989	154,591	49.2		100.1

^aDirect obstetric deaths (or direct maternal deaths) are those “resulting from obstetric complications of the pregnant state (pregnancy, labour and puerperium), and from interventions, omissions, incorrect treatment, or from a chain of events resulting from any of the above

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