Maternal mortality data from civil registration were extracted primarily from the WHO mortality database for the years 1985 onwards. For civil registration data using the ICD-9, deaths from chapter X Complication of pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperium (codes 630– 676) were included. For civil registration data using the ICD-10, the chapter XV Pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperium codes (O00–O99) plus maternal tetanus (A34) were extracted in order to match the ICD-9, which does not specifically identify late maternal deaths. To maintain comparability between these data sets, maternal deaths coded as late maternal deaths (ICD-10 O96, O97) were not excluded in the total numbers of maternal deaths. These late.