Study of maternal deaths in Kerian (1976 - 1980)

Maternal deaths in Kerian district during a 5 year period (1976-1980) is described. There were 35 maternal deaths in all and Malays constituted the majority 32 (91.4 percent). Most of the women were of low socio-economic status and only 20 percent had some formal education. The women were mainly multigravida and majority of them 20 (57.2 percent) were between 31-40 years of age. The main cause of death being PPH and PPH with retained placenta. Most of them died at home and were attended to by TBAs. The need to identify, train and utilise TBAs has been realised as they delivered about 41.4 percent of the deliveries in Kerian in 1976.