According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 800 women die per day globally owing to pregnancy-related complications. The lifetime risk of a woman dying from a pregnancy-related cause in a low-income country is 25 times higher than in a high-income country. High-income countries have a much lower mortality rate than low-income countries. [1] Since the inception of the National Committee on the Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths in October 1997, maternal mortality has been the main indicator used to measure the quality of care in South Africa (SA). [2] Despite the increase in resources countrywide to prevent maternal mortality, SA nevertheless has a highly unacceptable maternal mortality rate (MMR). The MMR is 127/100 000 in developing countries compared with 16/100 000 in developed countries. [3] SA had an institutional MMR (iMMR) of 154/100 000 in the 2011-2013 Saving Mothers Report. [4] A review of maternal deaths in SA shows an increasing number of deaths between 1999 and 2010. [2] Ekurhuleni District was among the poorly performing districts in SA. The aim of the study was to assess the causes of maternal deaths at Natalspruit Hospital, Johannesburg, SA, and to make recommendations to improve the quality of care. This open-access article is distributed under Creative Commons licence CC-BY-NC 4.0.
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