Inventaire d'enquêtes Demostaf

Pison Gilles, Kodio Belco, Guyavarch Emmanuelle, Etard Jean-François.- Maternai mortality in rural Senegal The frequency and cause of maternal death was measured in three rural localities in Senegal: Bandafassi, Niakhar, and Mlomp. Their populations have been subject to the same method of demographic observation over many years, thus ensuring the comparability of the results. The three sites are contrasted by the proportions of women giving birth in hospital - 99\% in Mlomp, 15\% in Niakhar and 3\% in Bandafassi - by the remoteness of hospitals equipped for caesareans and by facilities for evacuating women having difficulties in labour. Maternal mortality varies in a ratio of 1 to 2 between the sites. It is lowest in Mlomp (436 deaths per hundred thousand live births), highest in Bandaffasi (826) and intermediate in Niakhar (516). These variations are closely related to the existence of facilities for emergency evacuation of women having difficulties giving birth. On the other hand, the conditions of birth, in particular the proportion occurring in hospital, seem to have a less important role than might be expected. For Senegal as whole, the WHO estimated maternal mortality at 1 200 maternal deaths for 100,000 live births in 1990. This study shows that the figure was appreciably lower in all three localities, even though all are in rural areas. The WHO would thus appear to have largely overestimated maternal mortality for the country as a whole.