Prevalence and correlates of morbidity in pregnant women in an urban slum of New Delhi

In most developing country settings, pregnancy and childbirth are accepted as normal events of life and it is not surprising that problems associated with pregnancy are also accepted without much ado. A new approach to measuring maternal mortality indicates that there are about 585,000 maternal deaths annually worldwide, 99 per cent of them in developing countries (AbouZhar and others, 1996). Over 20 million babies are born in India every year. The maternal mortality ratio ranges from 400 to 550 deaths per 100,000 live births, with wide variations between different states (Bhat and others, 1992). However, mortality represents just the tip of the iceberg. It has been estimated that for every maternal death, there are over 100 acute morbid episodes indicating an overall figure of 62 million morbidities annually (Koblinsky, 1993). Though these are crude estimates, they highlight the magnitude of the problem.