Cuts in health services across Europe are linked to increase rates of deaths of new mothers, researchers warned today.
The study comes the day after a study into maternal dath rates in the UK was released. This found a fall in rates despite a spate of deaths linked to flu.
Researchers said health systems that kept a presence of “skilled birth attendants” for women in labour avoided increases in death rates.
The research, published in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, spans the period from 1981 to 2010 and does not include the recent years of public spending cutbacks in many European countries.
It involved some 24 countries with a total population of more than 400 million.
Researchers found that every 1% reduction in government health care spending was linked with a 10.6% increase in maternal mortality rates.
Researcher Professor Thomas Zeltner, of Bern University, Switzerland, said: “With reduced government spending in this area in times of austerity, policy makers need to be aware of the consequences of the budget cuts. If cost-reductions are matched by sufficient increases in efficiency, quality of care may remain.
“Our results suggest that reductions in government healthcare spending are associated with increased maternal mortality rates in the EU.
“This may occur due to a variety of reasons such as reductions in the number of births attended by skilled health professionals."
Journal editor John Thorp said: “This paper covers a large amount of time and is one of the only studies to look at this.
“It is clear that skilled attendants such as doctors, midwives and nurses who have been adequately trained to manage uncomplicated as well as complicated pregnancies, childbirth and the postnatal period are crucial to maximising safety and survival of women and their infants.”
The association between government healthcare spending and maternal mortality in the European Union, 1981–2010: a retrospective study. BJOG 10 December 2014; DOI: 10.1111/1471-0528.13205. [abstract]
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