Abstract

Introduction: It’s usually a joyful event when women give birth to a baby she wishes. But birth is a critical time for the health of the mother and baby. Skilled care throughout pregnancy from inception to postnatal care is life-saving for women and the child and institutional delivery is the one which is the most important place to get such services. Reproductive health care is a highly focused issue in the development of a country and delivery service to pregnant women is the most important component of reproductive health care to handle high-risk deliveries. Method: A retrospective, cross-sectional analysis was conducted on 258 maternal death reports submitted to the Ethiopian Public Health Institute via the national Public Health Emergency Management system from July 1, 2024, to March 30, 2025. Data, collected through facility abstraction (51%) and verbal autopsy (46%), were analyzed descriptively to profile demographic characteristics, causes of death, and contributing factors using the “Three Delays” model. Result: From the 258 maternal death 133 (51%) of were extracted from facility abstraction format, 118(46%) of them were extracted from verbal autopsy and 7(3%) MD source were not identified. The majority 150(58%) of maternal deaths were happened at hospital followed by home which contributes 50(19.3%) of MD. 157 (62 %) of maternal deaths were happened during post-partum period. From Direct obstetric cause hemorrhage was the leading cause of maternal death (41%) followed by HDP (16%) of MD. Anemia was the leading cause among the indirect obstetric causes of deaths (17%). 82%-Maternal death was believed that the death was preventable. Conclusion and recommendation: The findings expose a critical paradox: most deaths are preventable and occur within healthcare facilities, yet are preceded by profound community and systemic delays. To avert these losses, urgent action is needed on two fronts: (1) strengthening community mobilization and education to ensure timely care-seeking, and (2) ensuring health facilities are fully equipped and prepared to provide quality emergency obstetric care without delay. The full implementation of the MDSR “Response” component is essential to translate these findings into life-saving policy and practice.

Keywords

maternal mortality, maternal death surveillance and response (MDSR), three delays, Ethiopia, preventable deaths, emergency obstetric care