An audit of deliveries and outcome at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, Blantyre, in 1999

A one-year audit of deliveries at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, Blantyre, was undertaken for 1999. The main objective of the audit was to obtain baseline data on forms of deliveries and pregnancy outcome. A total of 12,293 births occurred during the study period. Of these, 11,565 were singleton deliveries, 349 twin deliveries and 10 triplets. Characteristics of singleton deliveries were analysed further when data were available. The age distribution of the mothers ranged from 10 to 55 years with a mean age of 23.4 years. Of 10,314 singleton deliveries, 8710 (84.4%) were spontaneous vertex deliveries, 1121 (10.8%) were caesarian section, 304 (2.94%) were vacuum extraction and 169 (1.63%) were assisted breech deliveries. Breech deliveries had the worst outcome. The maternal mortality rate for the year 1999 was 1224 per 100,000 live births and the perinatal mortality rate was 49.3 per 1000 live births.