YEREVAN. – A total of 15, 13, 4 and 3 cases of maternal mortality were recorded in Armenia in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 respectively. And four such cases have been registered in the first seven months of the current year.    

The primary causes of maternal mortality in Armenia likewise used to be obstetrical bleeding, hyperintense interruption of pregnancy, post-birth complications, and abortions, Pastinfo News Agency informs.

In the maternal mortalities recorded in the past five years, however, the causes that are not directly related to pregnancy and childbirth have become more frequent, and their regularity exceeds the major causes of respective deaths in the previous years.        

Five of the forty women—that is, 12.5 percent—who lost their lives from 2008 to 2012 and as a result of pregnancy, childbirth, and post-birth complications in Armenia, had died at home. And such cases of death are primarily conditioned on extragenital diseases, or unforeseen causes during short-term pregnancies, or the post-birth period.  

In the case of the women who died as a result of extragenital diseases, the pregnancies were up to six-seven weeks, and the pregnancy was discovered only during autopsy.  

But the sole consolation under this truly dire situation is the fact that the maternal mortality rate in Armenia is falling in the past five years.