Disentangling the Risk of Motherhood: An Exploratory Study of Maternal Mortality in India

Akshay Mishra , International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai
Ram Usha, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

The increased availability of household survey data and precise estimation techniques have enhanced our capabilities to understand maternal mortality in India. At present, only SRS provides the maternal mortality estimates, but it fails to provide for different demographic backgrounds. This paper tried to estimate separate estimates for maternal mortality during and outside the pregnancy period assuming that the non-pregnancy related risks are constant. Comparative analysis of both rates can provide a better picture of mortality associated with pregnancy than the methods which give only one estimate. Deaths from pregnancy-related reasons are entirely avoidable still 49 per cent of deaths in India during pregnancy may be pregnancy-related. This estimate does not tell us the exact story but can be used as lower bound for some instances as a variety of estimates are used for policy purposes.

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 Presented in Session P3. Poster Session Migration, Economics, Environment, Methods, History and Policy