A comparison of maternal mortality estimates from GBD 2013 and WHO

Abstract

Despite rough agreement in global estimates of maternal mortality in 2013, results from the WHO and Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2013 collaborations differed by 147,000 deaths for 1990, diverged by at least 20% in 120 countries in 2013, and provided very different narratives on progress toward Millennium Development Goal 5. The differences are crucial for global monitoring as well as national policy formulation and program planning.