This indicates that the number of women dying during childbirth in Karnataka has dropped significantly.
Karnataka’s Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) declined by five points to 92 per one lakh live births in 2016-18 from 97 per one lakh live births in 2015-17. For the period between 2014 and 2016, the state’s MMR was 108.
This indicates that the number of women dying during childbirth in the state has dropped significantly.
The maternal mortality ratio is an indicator of a state’s public health. The ratio also helps determine progress a state has made in terms of saving the lives of pregnant women during pregnancy, childbirth and lactation.
Karnataka is the only state in southern India to have seen a 5.2 percent decline in the ratio.
Yet, according to the latest Sample Registration System 2016-18 bulletin for MMR released by the Registrar-General of India on July 16, Karnataka’s MMR continues to be the highest among the five southern states.
India's MMR stands at 113 per one lakh live births. At 215, Assam has the highest MMR in the country.
Kerala tops the ranking with the lowest MMR — 43 per one lakh live births. However, this has marginally increased from 42 in 2015-2017. Maharashtra is placed second with a ratio of 46 per one lakh live births.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “Maternal death” is the death of a woman while being “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”.