Aims & Objectives: To find out the relevant details of each death. Setting: Labour room of Patna Medical College Hospital. Study period: January 2014 to December 2015 Design: Retrospective study Material and methods: Review of the records of the women who died. Observations: Total number of deliveries during this period was 12,334. Total number of deaths were 210, MMR was 1702.6. Total number of vaginal births were 7582 and Cesarean birth were 4752. 84.2% women were between age 21-30 years, 57.14% were either primi or second gravida, 64.7% had poor general health, 82% came from low socio economic group and 57% women who died were illiterate. 55% of the women traversed a distance of more than 50 KM to reach our center, 80% of them were referred from some private clinics and 57% were in a critical condition. 33.3% women had no ANC, 44.7% women had more than 8 months pregnancy, 80% of the women received conservative management and admission death interval was less than 24 hours in 55% women. Among the direct causes of death-haemorrhage accounted for 34.28% deaths followed by eclampsia-7.14% and sepsis 10.47%. The indirect causes of death were severe anaemia (32%), hepatitis (15%), heart disease (4.7%) and there was one death each due to blood transfusion and anaesthesia. Conclusion: Most of these deaths were preventable. Proper antenatal care, empowerment of women and timely referral are the key factors in reducing maternal mortality.
