Improving obstetric care in low-resource settings: implementation of facility-based maternal death reviews in five pilot hospitals in Senegal

Table 1 Characteristics of participating hospitals

Characteristics	Hospital A	Hospital B	Hospital C	Hospital D	Hospital E
	Teaching/ tertiary level	District	Regional	Regional	Regional
Localization in Dakar (capital city)	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
No. of maternity beds	120	66	54	86	33
No. of doctors covering maternity	7	2	1	3	1
No. of midwives	41	21	9	9	5
No. of deliveries (2004)	6345	7426	2959	4378	648
Availability of basic services^a	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Availability of basic emergency obstetric services^b	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Availability of caesarean sections^c	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Availability of safe blood^c	No	No	No	No	No
Availability of adult intensive care unit	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Number of maternal deaths (2004)^d	53	44	31	60	37
Overall rate of maternal lethality/1000^e	8.3	5.9	10.5	13.7	57.1

^a Reliable water supply, sanitation facilities, electricity, generator, refrigerator, telephone
^bParenteral antibiotics, parenteral oxytocic drugs, parenteral anticonvulsants for pre-eclampsia and eclampsia, manual removal of placenta, removal of retained products (e.g. vacuum aspiration), assisted vaginal delivery (e.g. vacuum extraction, forceps)
^c caesarean section and transfusion can be done in the service 364 days/365, 24 h/24
^dSource of information: registers of deliveries in the maternity units for year 2004
^eNumber of maternal deaths among women giving birth in the facility during the same period

ISSN: 1478-4491