A theme issue by, for, and about Africa: Maternal mortality in rural Burkina Faso

doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7519.779

BMJ 2005;331:779 (1 October), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7519.779

Letter

A theme issue by, for, and about Africa

Maternal mortality in rural Burkina Faso

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Volmink et al identify maternal mortality as animportant health challenge in Africa.¹ Using a census approachwith one year recall we estimated the maternal mortality ratioin a population of 44 000 women of childbearing age in Houndé,a rural district in Burkina Faso, to be 406 maternal deathsper 100 000 live births (95% confidence interval 281 to 566).This is probably an underestimate, based as it is on recalland verbal autopsy. We probably missed some deaths altogetherand may have misclassified some maternal deaths as not maternalbecause only 15% of all deaths among women of childbearing agewere classified as maternal—a low percentage comparedwith other reports from similar settings.²

Nevertheless this figure is 40 times higher than in Europe ornorth America. With a total fertility rate estimated at 6, thelifetime risk of maternal death for a woman in this population. . . [Full text of this article]

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Issiaka Sombie, medical epidemiologist

isombie.muraz@fasonet.bf
Centre MURAZ, 01 BP 390 Bobo-Dioulasso 01, Burkina Faso

Nicolas Meda, medical epidemiologist, Odette Ky-Zerbo, epidemiologist

Centre MURAZ, 01 BP 390 Bobo-Dioulasso 01, Burkina Faso

Michèle Dramaix-Wilmet, professor of biostatistics

Université Libre de Bruxelles, École de Santé Publique, Laboratoire de Statistique Médicale, CP598 B-1070, Brussels, Belgium

Simon Cousens, professor of epidemiology and medical statistics

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London WC1E 7HT