Paper short abstract:

Maternal mortality is a major public health issue in sub-Saharan Africa despite the improvement of medical technologies. This raises questions, namely the place of national policies, women’s living conditions and their access to the necessary medical care.

Paper long abstract:

Maternal mortality keeps being a major public health issue in sub-Saharan Africa despite the improvement of medical technologies and their dissemination. This raises questions at different levels : national policies set up to solve these problems as well as the plural reproductive experiences of women. This paper relies on research work carried out in Dakar. Its purpose is to identify and to understand the different logics such as social, cultural, health and gender factors among others, which contribute to building the situations of vulnerability Senegalese women are exposed to as regards the risk of maternal mortality. This paper analyses the different dynamics leading to the building of women’s reproductive paths, which expose them, to a greater or lesser extent, to the risk of maternal mortality. The question of the access to health structures and to the existing new technologies is at the heart of this problem which is particularly linked with poverty and raises ethical issues. This study focuses on different districts of Dakar and highlights the fact that in spite of the announcement by the state of a global improvement of maternal mortality, Senegal like other sub-Saharan African countries is still one of the most affected countries in terms of maternal mortality. This paper presents the results of the first phase of this study which brings out the combination of factors favoring situations of maternal mortality risk.