Open Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 2021, 11, 315-325 https://www.scirp.org/journal/ojog ISSN Online: 2160-8806 ISSN Print: 2160-8792 DOI: 10.4236/ojog.2021.113032 Mar. 29, 2021 315 Open Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology Maternal Mortality at the Teaching Hospital of Mother and Child Lagoon (CHU-MEL) in Benin: A Preventable Drama? M. Aboubakar 1* , J. Akodjenou 1 , C. Echoudina 2 , E. Ahounou 2 , C. O. A. Biaou 3 , E. Zoumenou 2 1 Teaching Hospital of Mother and Child Lagoon, Cotonou, Bénin 2 National and Teaching Hospital, Hubert Koutoukou Maga, Cotonou, Bénin 3 Régional Institute of Public Health, Ouidah, Benin Abstract Introduction: The maternal mortality ratio in developing countries is 239/ 100,000 live births (LV) in 2015, compared to 12/100,000 live births (LV) in developed countries. This study aims to analyze the avoidability of maternal deaths at the CHU-MEL from 2015 to 2019. Patients and Method: This was a descriptive analytical study with retrospective data collection from January 1st 2015 to August 31st 2019, i.e. 56 months. The data were collected from medical records, maternal death registers, anaesthesia registers. They were entered and analyzed using Epi info version 7 software. The associations be- tween avoidability of death and aetiologies were tested using Chi 2 or Fisher’s test as appropriate. The threshold for statistical significance was 5%. Results: The maternal mortality ratio over 5 years was 905 maternal deaths per 100,000 LV. The age of the deceased women ranged from 15 to 44 years, with an av- erage of 29.09 ± 7.04 years. They were illiterate or primary educated (47.02%), married (64.50%) primigravida or paucigravidae (47.02%) and primiparous or pauciparous (59.52%). Of the 151 maternal deaths, (90.73%) were deemed preventable. Delay was the main reason for maternal death, and 82.11% had at least one type of delay. There was no significant difference between the avoidability of death and the main aetiologies of haemorrhage (p = 0.865), infections (p = 0.208) and hypertensive complications (p = 0.438). Conclu- sion: The maternal mortality ratio during the study period was 905 maternal deaths per 100,000 LV. Deaths were preventable in 90.73% of cases. The avoi- dability factors found were varied. Keywords Maternal Mortality, Avoidability, CHU-MEL, Benin How to cite this paper: Aboubakar, M., Akodjenou, J., Echoudina, C., Ahounou, E., Biaou, C.O.A. and Zoumenou, E. (2021) Maternal Mortality at the Teaching Hospit- al of Mother and Child Lagoon (CHU- MEL) in Benin: A Preventable Drama? Open Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 11, 315-325. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojog.2021.113032 Received: January 27, 2021 Accepted: March 26, 2021 Published: March 29, 2021 Copyright © 2021 by author(s) and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access