Assessment of maternal mortality in Tanzania.

OBJECTIVE

To assess maternal mortality.

DESIGN

Prospective community-based survey, a sisterhood method survey and hospital data.

SETTING

The study was performed in communities in a rural area in Northwestern Tanzania and the local district hospital.

RESULTS

Four hundred and forty-seven pregnant women in the community survey were followed up as far as six weeks after delivery; there were 2865 respondents in the sisterhood survey; the hospital study involved 7526 deliveries. Maternal morality ratios derived from the prospective community-based survey, the sisterhood method survey and hospital data analysis were 241, 297, and 845 per 100,000 live births, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

Hospital data tend to overestimate maternal mortality in these communities. The sisterhood method is easier and more convenient than a prospective community-based study.