@article{PAR00006490, title = {{B}eyond body counts : a qualitative study of lives and loss in {B}urkina {F}aso after 'near-miss' obstetric complications}, author = {{S}toreng, {K}. {T}. and {M}urray, {S}. {F}. and {A}koum, {M}. {S}. and {O}uattara, {F}atoumata and {F}ilippi, {V}.}, editor = {}, language = {{ENG}}, abstract = {{A}verting women's pregnancy-related death is today recognised as an international health and development priority. {M}aternal survival is, in this sense, a success story. {T}here is, however, little research into what happens to the women who survive the severe obstetric complications that are the main causes of maternal mortality. {T}his paper examines findings from repeated in-depth interviews with 64 women who survived a clinically defined 'near-miss.' {T}hese interviews were conducted as part of a prospective longitudinal study of women who 'nearly died' of pregnancy-related complications in {B}urkina {F}aso, a poor country in {W}est {A}frica. {D}rawing on sociological and anthropological perspectives that consider the defining characteristics of 'loss' to be social as much as biomedical, the paper seeks to understand loss as disruption of familiar forms and patterns of life. {W}omen's accounts of their lives in the year following the near-miss event show that such events are not only about blood loss, seizures or infections, but also about a household crisis for which all available resources were mobilised, with a train of physical, economic and social consequences. {T}he paper argues that near-miss events are characterised by the near-loss of a woman's life, but also frequently by the loss of the baby and by further significant disruptions in three overlapping dimensions of women's lives. {T}hese include disruption of bodily integrity through injury, ongoing illness and loss of strength and stamina; disruption of the household economy through high expenditure, debts and loss of productive capacity; and disruption of social identity and social stability. {M}aternal health policy needs to be concerned not only with averting the loss of life, but also with preventing or ameliorating others losses set in motion by an obstetric crisis.}, keywords = {{B}urkina {F}aso ; {P}regnancy complications ; {C}hildbirth ; {P}ost partum ; {L}oss ; {W}omen ; {Q}ualitative}, booktitle = {}, journal = {{S}ocial {S}cience and {M}edicine}, volume = {71}, numero = {10}, pages = {1749--1756}, ISSN = {0277-9536}, year = {2010}, DOI = {10.1016/j.socscimed.2010.03.056}, URL = {https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/{PAR}00006490}, }