RESUMO
PIP: Between December 1978-May 1979, 1118 health workers in 63 hospitals and 732 nonhospital facilities were interviewed to identify case reports of maternal and abortion-related deaths in Bangladesh. Of 1933 pregnancy-related deaths identified, 498 (25.8%) were due to induced abortion. Findings of an earlier study of maternal mortality was used to estimate that about 21,600 pregnancy-related deaths occur each year in Bangladesh. An estimated 7.5% of all pregnancy-related deaths were identified in this survey. Health workers reported 1590 cases of complications from abortion, of which 498 (31.3%) ended in death. Village dais (traditional birth attendants) and traditional practitioners were the largest groups of operators (42.1% and 18.1% respectively). Menstrual regulation or dilatation and curettage (medically approved procedures) were used in only 9.1% of the cases. Nearly 1/2 of the complicated abortions were induced by inserting a foreign object, such as a stick or root (sometimes treated with an herb), into the uterus and leaving it until either abortion or complications occurred. The proportion of complicated abortions resulting in death was lowest for medically approved procedures (4.9%) and highest for vigorous physical activity (100%) and abdominal pressure (66.7%), although the last 2 accounted for only 2.3% of abortion procedures. Women who died after abortion had a longer duration of pregnancy than women who survived. An extrapolation from these results gives a figure of 780,000 abortions in Bangladesh in 1978 and 7800 deaths that year from abortion complications. In this study, the attitudes toward abortion on the part of 396 physicians working in rural health complexes and subdivision and district hospitals were surveyed. Most of those interviewed (98.9%), indicated their approval of induced abortion in 1 or more circumstances not approved by the abortion law of the country.^ieng