The country with the highest estimated number of maternal death was India (136,000) followed by Nigeria (37,000) (World Health Organization,2004). Obstetric causes of maternal death are often documented in Nigeria but little attention is paid to the major contributing factors.
leaving statistics and analyzing from personal experience few people in Nigeria bother to investigate why the victims (pregnant women) die through autopsy. the deaths are all classified under complications.

Recent surveys revealed that one third of child births is attended to by qualified doctors, one fifth is attended by traditional or religious mid wives while one in every four delivery is handled by untrained personals. also what is considered a safe delivery is when the mother and the child is alive, only few bother to continue checks on the mother to see if there were no internal disorders or hemorrhages. this has led to the increase in post delivery deaths. this article investigates the causes and circumstances around maternal deaths.
Maternal mortality means female deaths associated with pregnancy, labor and the period immediately following child-birth.

Maternal death is divided into two group namely direct and indirect obstetric death:
1. Direct obstetric death are those resulting from obstetric complications of the pregnant state (pregnancy, labour and the pueperium) from interventions,omissions, incorrect treatment, or from a chain of events resulting from any of the above.

2. Indirect obstetric death are those resulting from previous existing disease or disease that developed during pregnancy and which was not due to directobstetric causes, but was aggravated by the physiological effects of pregnancy.

The high maternal mortality rate in Nigeria can be attributed to several causes which range from direct medical causes to indirect causes like taboos, inefficient infrastructure and other social and cultural factors. Commonly use approaches for obtaining data on levels of maternal mortality vary considerably in terms of methodology, source of data and precision of results. The main approaches are vital2
 registration of deaths by causes, direct house hold survey methods, indirect sisterhood  method (a survey-based measurement technique) direct sisterhood method,reproductive age mortality studies (which involves identifying and investigating the causes of all deaths of women of reproductive age) verbal autopsy and census.
POVERTY:The effect of poverty is multi-dimensional, several studies have shown thatthere were drastic decline in hospital births apparently as a result of the country’s deepening economic crises. only 31 percent of women in Nigeria deliver witha skilled attendants assistance this is why the life time risk of a woman dying as aresult of pregnancy or childbirth is high.

AGE AT PREGNANCY: It is believed that early marriage lowers the risk of pre-marital sexuality, as such, it is widely practiced, but at the same time ‘very early’ marriage can put the young particularly the girl at high  health risks of morbidity and mortality.

Food taboos are prevalent in several Nigerian communities, during pregnancyand child birth; women’s eating habits are guided by these local taboos, which denythe consumption of certain food that can fall within the range of protein, carbohydrateor fruits. For instance, some communities among the Yorubas prohibit the ingestion of meat, egg, beans or other protein-containing foods during pregnancy. Other forbidden foods are Okro soup and snail, for fear of excessive salivation of the infant; garden egg for fear of impaired speech in infant; fish for fear of extra digits and plantain for fear of delayed ossification of the anterior fortanelle; palm oil for fear of jaundice and certain fruits for fear of baldness.

RECOMNEDATIONS:  Nigeria should be engaged in the effort to reduce maternal mortality in Nigeria.Teachers in higher institution should be encourage to engage in discussing the issues of maternal death, there should an introduction of a course to cover this aspect, it should aim at revealing the multi-dimensional causes and consequences of maternal death, in addition to proffering adequate and varying solutions to students.
A well co-ordinated policy that provide skilled medical assistance during child-birth, whether at home or in a medical facility, irrespective of geographical location can save women’s live. The training of more primary health workers and traditional birth attendants into modern hygienic ways of child delivery, within the context of community needs will help reduce maternal health problems. Traditional births attendants can not be neglected ina country like Nigeria because a large proportion of deliveries are attended by the TBAs and quality maternal care is not accessible to the majority of the population.Poverty eradication policies that sincerely focus on the general populace will help alleviate the plight of reproductive mothers. Government’s intervention onhighlighting the negative consequences of some unfavorable cultural practices wil lgo along way in saving the life of women.

BABIES ARE BEAUTIFUL, MOTHERS ARE IMPORTANT