EFFECT OF MATERNAL MORTALITY RATE AMONG FEMALE BETWEEN THE AGE OF 15 – 40 YEARS
ABSTRACT
Maternal mortality has been describe as the death of women while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy. Kutungare village under Igabi Local Government Area is not an exemption to the effect of maternal mortality as research shown that most of the pregnant women suffer from issues related to maternal mortality due to the lack of awareness and high level of illiteracy or exposure to the effect of maternal mortality. Some of the most peculiar problems facing the women in Kutungare which is located out sketch of Kaduna main city are ignorance, poverty, home delivery and inadequate maternal centres which are some of the factors that contribute to maternal death in Kutungare community. However, there is urgent intervention and need for the government to organize sensitization programmes on awareness of the effect of maternal mortality and also to rehabilitate the existing health facility like provision of electricity, deployment of more medical personnel to the community, provision of ambulance for emergency situations. Therefore the further researcher should collectively expand the knowledge on how to minimize the maternal mortality rate not only through this state but also to the nation and worldwide in general. 
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1    BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
1.2    PROBLEM STATEMENT
1.3    STUDY OBJECTIVES
1.4    SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
1.5    STUDY QUESTIONS/HYPOTHESES
1.6    SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
1.7    DEFINITION OF TERMS
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED AND RELEVANT LITERATURE
2.1    INTRODUCTION
2.2    CONCEPTUAL CLARIFICATIONS
2.3    THEORETICAL STUDIES
2.4    EMPIRICAL STUDIES
2.5    RELATED LITERATURES
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODLOGY
3.1    RESEARCH DESIGN
3.2    STUDY AREA
3.3    SOURCES OF DATA
3.4    POPULATION OF THE STUDY
3.5    SAMPLE SIZE DETERMINATION
3.6    INSTRUMENTATION
3.7    RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF INSTRUMENT
3.8    METHOD OF DATA ANALYSIS
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENATATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
4.1    DATA PRESENTATION
4.2    DATA ANALYSIS
4.3    DATA INTERPRETATION
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
5.1    SUMMARY
5.2    CONCLUSION
5.3    RECOMMENDATION
REFERENCES
APPENDIX
 CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1    Background of the study
Maternal mortality, also known a maternal death, continues to be the major cause of death among women of reproductive age in many countries and remains a serious public health issue especially in developing countries (WHO 2007). As explained in Shah and Say (2007), a maternal death is defined as the death of a women while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management but not from accidental or incidental causes. Globally, the estimated number of maternal deaths worldwide in 2005 was 536,000 up from 529,000 in 2000. According to the WHO factsheet (2008) 1500 women die from pregnancy or pregnancy related complication every day. Most of these deaths occur in developing countries and most are avoidable of all the health statistics compiled by the WHO, the largest discrepancy between developed and developing countries occurred in maternal mortality. UJAH et al. (2005) noted that while 25 percent females of reproductive age lived in developed countries. The contributed only 1 percent of maternal deaths worldwide.
Nigeria has been mentioned by the United Nations as having one of the highest rates the top medical causes of maternal mortality in the world. Reducing high maternal mortality ration is not just a technical and medical challenge but largely a political one which requires the attention and commitment of political leaders. Mothers are the key to the provision of health services for children, she has been neglected and exploited by health service, traditionally to serve infants. As Nigeria is till passing through various stages of development many women still deliver at home without attending antenatal clinics, Kaduna State being part of Nigeria also many cases maternal mortality rate. This study is aimed at finding mortality rate occur due to obstetric hemorrhage. Other include infections following childbirth, unsafe abortion, eclampsia and obstructed labor. Experts agree that these causes are largely treatable and preventable. The root causes of high maternal mortality in Nigeria include weak development planning, poverty, illiteracy and low utilization of formal maternal health care services.
In recent years the international safe motherhood conference convened in Kenya raised global awareness of the devastating maternal mortality rates in developing nations and formally established the safe motherhood initiative. The goal was to reduce maternal mortality 50% unity the plight of the pregnant woman. Initially, donors, United Nation (UN) agencies and government focused of on 2 strategies to reduced maternal mortality: increasing antenatal care and training for traditional birth attendants.
Improving the health care system overall is undoubtedly a critical component to reducing maternal mortality and improving the general health of a nation. The current implementation of free health care to pregnant women and under five children seem to be yielding some positive results but Nigeria’s Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) however, is yet to reach the reduction rates as recommended.
1.2    STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
In spite of all the policies, declarations and other efforts aimed at reducing maternal death across the globe, only modest gains in maternal mortality reduction appear to have been achieved in many countries in the past 20 years (Shah and Say, 2007).
In Nigerian, The Federal Ministry of Health had set year 2006 as the target year that maternal mortality would have been reduced by 50 percent. However, not only were these targets not achieved but also the maternal health situation in Nigeria is now which worse than in previous years (Ujah et al 2005).
Past efforts to reduce maternal mortality ratio in Nigeria were concentrated on making direct improvements to the health systems. These efforts have not involved enough resources to successfully reduce maternal mortality in the country.
1.3    OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The main objective of this study is an appraisal of maternal mortality rate in Kutungare, specific objective includes:
i)    To appraise the causes of maternal mortality rate in Kutungare
ii)    To investigate the effect or maternal mortality rate on the population growth of Kaduna state
iii)    To investigate the relationship between maternal mortality and the psychological well-being of the children
iv)    To proffer suggested solution to the identified problem
1.4 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
To aid the completion of the study, the following research hypotheses were formulated by the researcher;
H0: there are no causes of maternal mortality rate in Kutungare
H1:there are causes of maternal mortality rate in Kutungare
H02: maternal mortality rate has no effect on the population growth of Kaduna state
H2:maternal mortality rate has effect on the population growth of Kaduna state.
1.5    SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
It is believed that at the completion of the study, the findings will be of great importance to the to the mid-wives and nurses in the general hospital, as the study seek to investigate the proximate causes of maternal mortality rate in the Kaduna state general hospital, the study will also be of great importance to pregnant women as the study seek to ascertain the major cause of maternal mortality rate in Kutungare communityand Igabi Local government at large. The study will also be beneficial to researchers who intends to embark on study in similar topic as the study will serve as a guide to their study. Finally the study will be beneficial to academia’s students and the general public.
1.6    SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
The study cover all the precautionary measures towards the effect of maternal mortality rate in KutungareIgabi West Local Government area of Kaduna State, with the aims and objectives governing the research work to the effective undertaken by the researcher. The study will be delimited to the effect of maternal mortality rate of women of child bearing age between the age of 20 – 40 years in KutungareIgabi West Local Government area of Kaduna State Nigeria. In the cause of the study, there were some factors which limited the scope of the study;
(a)Availability of research material: The research material available to the researcher is insufficient, thereby limiting the study.   
(b)Time: The time frame allocated to the study does not enhance wider coverage as the researcher has to combine other academic activities and examinations with the study.   
(c)Finance: The finance available for the research work does not allow for wider coverage as resources are very limited as the researcher has other academic bills to cover.
1.7 OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF TERMS
Maternal
Relating to a mother, especially during pregnancy or shortly after childbirth
Mortality
Mortality data indicate numbers of deaths by place, time and cause. WHO’s mortality data reflect deaths registered by national civil registration systems of deaths, with the underlying cause of death coded by the national authority.
Maternal mortality
Maternal death is the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management but not from accidental or incidental causes.
Mortality rate
Mortality rate, or death rate,[1] is a measure of the number of deaths (in general, or due to a specific cause) in a particular population, scaled to the size of that population, per unit of time. Mortality rate is typically expressed in units of deaths per 1,000 individuals per year; thus, a mortality rate of 9.5 (out of 1,000) in a population of 1,000 would mean 9.5 deaths per year in that entire population, or 0.95% out of the total.
1.8 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY
This research work is organized in five chapters, for easy understanding, as follows. Chapter one is concern with the introduction, which consist of the (background of the study), statement of the problem, objectives of the study, research questions, research hypotheses, significance of the study, scope of the study etc. Chapter two being the review of the related literature presents the theoretical framework, conceptual framework and other areas concerning the subject matter.     Chapter three is a research methodology covers deals on the research design and methods adopted in the study. Chapter four concentrate on the data collection and analysis and presentation of finding. Chapter five gives summary, conclusion, and recommendations made of the study.