Experience in a maternal mortality study in Nova Scotia

Material from a three-year Maternal Mortality Study in the Province of Nova Scotia is presented. Thirty-eight maternal deaths were studied; the chief cause was hemorrhage-either antepartum or postpartum-in 52% of all cases. Seventy-six per cent of the cases were due to practically preventable factors. Inadequate prenatal care in which the family was at fault had existed in 35% of the cases studied. Physician error in judgment and/or technique was present in 65%. Efforts to correct this situation have been described briefly. The need for public education, increased numbers of consultants, continued physician education, critical hospital analysis and improved hospital facilities is stressed.