BACKGROUND: Several demographic and health surveys in Africa have shown the high prevalence of home delivery, but little is known how strongly skilled person unattended deliveries are associated with maternal and perinatal mortality. The aim of this review was to assess the gross correlation of maternal mortality ratios (MMR) and perinatal mortality rates (PMR) with the proportion of skilled health personnel attended deliveries

METHODS: In this study, a systematic review was conducted after a computer based literature search was run in the electronic databases from 1990 through September 2013. Bivariate linear regression analyses were done for the proportion of skilled person attended deliveries in relation with MMR, stillbirth and neonatal mortality rates using national survey data of 41 African countries.

RESULTS: African countries with relatively small population sizes and with middle to high income were found to have above 90% skilled person attended deliveries. Several African countries with a high proportion of skilled person attended deliveries (60%-100%) were able to reduce the MMR to the range of 56-370/100,000 live births. Several Sub Saharan African (SSA) countries were far from their northern counterparts. The regression analyses demonstrated a negative correlation of the proportion of skilled health personnel attended deliveries with the MMR, stillbirth rate and neonatal mortality rate.

CONCLUSION: According to the national data of the included African countries, skilled delivery attendance was associated with significant reduction of maternal, fetal and neonatal mortality. SSA countries need to benchmark the experience of the North African countries to reduce the high maternal and perinatal deaths.