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Maternal Mortality in an Israeli Hospital: A Review of 23 Years
Author(s) -
Kessler I.,
Lancet M.,
Rozenman D.
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
international journal of gynecology and obstetrics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.895
H-Index - 97
eISSN - 1879-3479
pISSN - 0020-7292
DOI - 10.1002/j.1879-3479.1979.tb00140.x
Subject(s) - medicine , incidence (geometry) , obstetrics , maternal death , pregnancy , parity (physics) , developed country , demography , population , pediatrics , environmental health , physics , particle physics , sociology , biology , optics , genetics
In spite of great strides in obstetrics, maternal mortality has not been completely eliminated. Possible changes in the causes of mortality are examined for three periods of time (1954–1961, 1962–1971 and 1972–1976). The overall incidence was 3.6/10 000, changing through the three periods from 4.9 to 4.3 and finally to 3.0/10 000. Vascular accidents were the cause of death in almost one third of the cases, emerging as the most important etiologic factor. Older age and higher parity did not seem to influence the incidence of obstetric deaths. Cesarean section was involved in ten of 23 cases in which the death was directly related to the pregnancy and delivery. In six patients there was a rupture of the uterus. The number of preventable deaths has decreased steadily, but research into the problem of vascular accidents and a dampening of the enthusiasm for cesarean sections may further improve the situation.