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Worldwide, for an estimated 358,000 women, pregnancy and childbirth end in death and mourning, and beyond these maternal deaths, 9-10% of pregnant women or about 14 million women per year suffer from acute maternal complications. This paper documents the types and severity of maternal and foetal complications among women who gave birth in hospitals in Matlab and Chandpur, Bangladesh, during 2007-2008. The Community Health Research Workers (CHRWs) of the icddr,b service area in Matlab prospectively collected data for the study from 4,817 women on their places of delivery and pregnancy outcomes. Of them, 3,010 (62.5%) gave birth in different hospitals in Matlab and/or Chandpur and beyond. Review of hospital-records was attempted for 2,102 women who gave birth only in the Matlab Hospital of icddr,b and in other public and private hospitals in the Matlab and Chandpur area. Among those, 1,927 (91.7%) records were found and reviewed by a physician. By reviewing the hospital-records, 7.3% of the women (n=1,927) who gave birth in the local hospitals were diagnosed with a severe maternal complication, and 16.1% with a less-severe maternal complication. Abortion cases--either spontaneous or induced--were excluded from the analysis. Over 12% of all births were delivered by caesarean section (CS). For a substantial proportion (12.5%) of CS, no clear medical indication was recorded in the hospital-register. Twelve maternal deaths occurred during the study period; most (83%) of them had been in contact with a hospital before death. Recommendations include standardization of the hospital record-keeping system, proper monitoring of indications of CS, and introduction of maternal death audit for further improvement of the quality of care in public and private hospitals in rural Bangladesh.

The study was done throughout 2001 to find out the health care-seeking behavior & cost analysis generated from obstetric complications in rural Bangladesh. Total 350 women in postnatal period who had obstetric complications were interviewed from the study area of 150 km apart in the rural section of Bangladesh namely Dewangonj & Trishal Upazila. Majority of the respondents belonged to the age group 17-35 years & all the mothers had obstetric complications. Major obstetric complications were haemorrhage, prolonged labour, premature rupture of membrane, eclampsia, septic abortion, obstructed labour, prolonged labour etc. 74% had history of home delivery out of which 26% were reported to the hospital. Majority of them (74%) was reluctant to take the health utilization system. The major problem was financial burden, which seems to divert the major changing of health care seeking behavior.