Make Every Mother Count : Maternal mortality in Malawi, India and United Kingdom

Abstract: Objective: The aim of this thesis is to examine and compare the maternal mortality in three different countries; Malawi, India and United Kingdom, as well as highlighting the attributing factors and preventive steps that would reduce the maternal mortality in these countries. Methods and material: The studied design that was chosen is an ecological study which means to study the relationship between aggregated health data and exposing factors, for example a geographical area and time period. The reason of choosing this study can be seen in the relationship and the factors that contribute to maternal mortality in Malawi, India and the United Kingdom. In order to attain the objective of the thesis a variety of sources were utilized to find data, statistics and scientific articles concerning maternal mortality in all three countries.Results and conclusion: Maternal mortality is the highest in Malawi and India, while it is very low in the United Kingdom when compared with these two countries. The result shows among other things that the maternal mortality is mainly caused by direct causes both in Malawi and India and in the United Kingdom the maternal mortality is mainly from indirect causes. It is also shown that the maternal mortality in these countries have been changed over the years. It is also shown that preventive steps such as family planning, skilled attendance, obstetric emergency care and antenatal care can significantly reduce the maternal mortality rate.