Background: Because maternal mortality is a rare event, it is important to study maternal near-miss as a complement to evaluate and improve the quality of obstetric care. Thus, the study was conducted with the aim of assessing the incidence and causes of maternal near-miss. Methods: A facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted in five selected public hospitals of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from May 1, 2015 to April 30, 2016. All maternal near-miss cases admitted to the selected hospitals during the study period were prospectively recruited. World Health Organization criteria were used to identify maternal near-miss cases. The number of maternal near-miss cases over one year per 1000 live births occurring during the same year was calculated to determine the incidence of maternal near-miss. Underlying and contributing causes of maternal near-miss were documented from each participant’s record. Results: During the one-year period, there were a total of 238 maternal near-miss cases and 29,697 live births in all participating hospitals, which provides a maternal near-miss incidence ratio of 8.01 per 1000 live births. The underlying causes of the majority of maternal near-miss cases were hypertensive disorders and obstetric hemorrhage. Anemia was the major contributing cause reported for maternal near-miss. Most of the maternal near-miss cases occurred before the women’s arrival at the participating hospitals. Conclusion: The study demonstrated a lower maternal near-miss incidence ratio compared to previous country-level studies. The majority of the near-miss cases occurred before the women’s arrival at the participating hospitals, which underscores the importance of improving pre-hospital barriers. Efforts made toward improvement in the management of life-threatening obstetric complications could reduce the occurrence of maternal near-miss problems that occur during hospitalization.
The study was conducted in five selected public hospitals of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from May 1, 2015 to April 30, 2016. The hospitals were selected based on the number of deliveries they managed per year. Because most critical maternal cases are referred to a hospital known to provide better care, the presence of an Intensive Care Unit (ICU), maternity ward, blood transfusion service and facilities for caesarean section (CS) were also considered in the selection of hospitals. Hence, Tikur Anbessa, St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College, Zewditu Memorial, Yekatit 12, and Gandhi Memorial Hospitals were selected for the current study. Tikur Anbessa Hospital is the largest referral and teaching hospital in Ethiopia and is operated under the Ministry of Education of Ethiopia. St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College is the largest referral and teaching hospital among those operated under the Federal Ministry of Health. However, the Gandhi Memorial, Yekatit 12 and Zewditu Memorial Hospitals were among the six governmental referral and teaching hospitals that are managed under the Addis Ababa Administrative Health Office. Together, the five hospitals were responsible for a total of 29,697 live birth deliveries during the year in which this study took place. Apart from Tikur Anbessa Hospital, which received very critical cases from different part of Ethiopia, the hospitals are comparable in terms of the patients they receive for care and treatment (Fig 1). SPHMC (St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College), TAH (Tikur Anbessa Hospital), Y12H (Yekatit 12 Hospital), ZMH (Zewditu Memorial Hospital) and GMH (Gandhi Memorial Hospital). A facility-based cross-sectional study design was used to address the objective of the current study. All women admitted to the participating hospitals during the study period for the treatment of pregnancy-related complications (such as ectopic pregnancy or abortion), having delivered, or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, and who fulfilled at least one of the conditions stated in the WHO criteria (S1 Table) [5] were included. Depending on when the near-miss occurred, maternal near-miss cases were further categorized into two groups. Women who were assessed as being in critical condition on arrival to a hospital were classified as near-miss before arrival. However, if the near-miss occurred during hospitalization, it was classified as near-miss after arrival. The sample size was determined by a single population proportion formula by assuming the prevalence of maternal near-miss in Ethiopia to be 7.9% [23]. Considering a 1% margin of error, a 95% confidence interval (CI) and a 10% non-response rate, a minimum of 2795 live births were calculated to be the appropriate sample size for this study. However, during the year of the study, a 10 times larger number of live births than the number required was obtained in the five hospitals (29,697 live births), and we decided to include the entire period of one year to increase the precision of the study. Women who experienced a maternal near-miss event during pregnancy, delivery or the postpartum period were identified prospectively by well-trained midwives and nurses in each hospital. Data relating to the most important variables were abstracted from the medical record of the participants using the WHO data abstraction tool, with some modifications [5]. The data were collected from the Delivery Ward, Obstetrics and Gynecology Ward, ICU, and Emergency Gynecology Outpatient Department of each hospital. For each maternal near-miss case, only one underlying cause was identified as per the WHO International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD). According to the ICD, the underlying cause is the disease or injury which initiated the sequence of events leading directly to death [32]. Because the same classification is used for both maternal death and maternal near-miss [33], the classifications used for maternal near-miss were the same as those listed in the ICD for maternal mortality [34]. However, all possible contributing causes were considered. Information regarding whether the near-miss was present before arrival or developed during hospitalization was also collected in order to determine the place where the near-miss occurred. Data on the total number of live births occurring over one year for each hospital were extracted from the Health Management Information System (HMIS) report of each hospital. The supervisors in all participating hospitals were responsible for checking the completeness of the information. The enumerators filled in the date and signed each questionnaire, which was later checked, edited and signed by the supervisors regularly at each hospital. The data that were collected using hard copies were kept in a locked cabinet by each supervisor until gathered by the principal investigator during supervision. Following this, the data were entered into Epi Info 7 software, and transported to SPSS version 20 and Open Epi computer software for final analysis. The total incidence of maternal near-miss in the hospitals involved in this study was calculated using the maternal near-miss incidence ratio (MNMIR) formula. This was calculated by dividing the number of maternal near-miss cases during one year by the total number of live births during the same year. The incidence ratio in each hospital was also calculated with a 95% CI. In addition, hospital access indicators, such as the number of women with a maternal near-miss condition before arrival at the hospital, were calculated. Intra-hospital care indicators, such as the number of women with near-miss who developed conditions in the hospital, were also calculated. In order to determine the underlying and contributory causes of maternal near-miss, a descriptive frequency for each cause was calculated. The total number and frequency of each cause for all hospitals involved were calculated separately. The causes were categorized into underlying and contributory as per the WHO recommendation [5]. A descriptive frequency of the type of organ dysfunction present in maternal near-miss cases was also calculated. In order to maintain the quality of data, intensive training was given to data collectors and supervisors. All health care workers working in the maternity ward of each participating hospital were also sensitized to the issue so that they would inform the enumerators when they suspected a near-miss case. In addition, inclusion criteria for maternal near-miss were printed and posted on the wall of each ward at all participating hospitals. The data collectors made a daily visit to the Delivery Ward, Obstetrics and Gynecology Ward, ICU, and Emergency Gynecology Outpatient Department to check for potential cases. The data collectors were given training to standardize methods and ensure consistency of data collection. One hospital supervisor, who was responsible for the overall quality of the data, was appointed at each participating hospital. There was frequent supervision of the included hospitals by the principal investigator. The standardized data abstraction form developed by the WHO [5] was used to abstract pertinent information. The questionnaires were also first pre-tested in the participating hospitals to verify the appropriateness of the tool. The standardized WHO criteria were used to identify maternal near-miss cases. Hence, all the above procedures contributed greatly to obtaining quality data. Acceptable ethical standards were strictly adhered to throughout the study process. The study was first approved by the Institutional Review Board of the College of Health sciences, Addis Ababa University (Protocol number: 058/14/SPH, Date: January 2015). It was also approved by the Ethical Review Committee of each hospital. Adequate explanation about the purpose of the study and a letter of support was given to all concerned bodies. For studies that are not clinical trials that involve invasive procedures, taking verbal consent is the standard requirement of the Institutional Review Board of Addis Ababa University. Hence, verbal consent was taken to abstract pertinent information from the participant’s record. The anonymity of the participants was respected via the use of codes rather than the name of the participant. The names of the participants were not reported in the findings of the study to ensure confidentiality.