Cardiovascular disease is one of the key factors underlying maternal deaths, experts say today.
The latest investigation of maternal deaths shows that, in the UK, 8.5 in every 100,000 women dies during pregnancy or soon after giving birth.
The MBRRACE-UK team, led by experts at the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit at Oxford University, UK, also found that two in every 100,000 died from heart disease – the leading cause of these deaths.
They found no significant change in the overall national maternal death rate since the last report in 2003.
Researchers studied in detail the deaths of some 150 young women who died from heart disease after giving birth over a period of six years. They found that in some cases the disease was not diagnosed and in other cases it was "fragmented."
The researchers state: "Preventing women from dying from heart disease is essential to efforts to continue to reduce the number of women dying. "
They add: "Despite blood pressure problems – pre-eclampsia and related complications – being very common in pregnancy, maternal deaths from these conditions are at their lowest rate ever. Now in the UK less than one woman in every million women dies from a blood pressure disorder of pregnancy. This is less than one woman every year compared with more than one woman every hour globally who dies from this condition. This is a great success of maternity care in the UK."
Commenting on the findings, Professor Lesley Regan of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists said: "Maternity care in the UK is both safe and effective, however one death is too many and as healthcare professionals, we must learn from these unfortunate deaths in order to prevent them in future."
The number of women dying from sepsis has fallen, due to a dramatic reduction in influenza deaths. Furthermore, there has been a fall in the number of deaths from hypertensive disorders of pregnancy.
But to improve the mortality rate from cardiovascular disease "requires multidisciplinary input from obstetricians, midwives, physicians, anaesthetists, GPs, and critical care staff," Professor Regan says.
She also calls for a move towards preventative measures to improve the health of all women at every age and stage of their lives.
Cathy Warwick of the Royal College of Midwives adds: "I want to reassure women that the number of maternal deaths in the UK is very low. The number of deaths from cardiac related problems shows there is clearly a need for maternity services to improve on caring for women with heart related and other serious illnesses in pregnancy. This means caring for those who we know have problems better, and improving detection rates when these illnesses develop during pregnancy."
Professor Derek Bell, president of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, said: "We need to work collectively to reduce avoidable death and harm.
"The ‘Preventing maternal mortality: It’s ok to ask’ project and ‘Three Ps in a pod’ poster, endorsed by the College, reminds clinicians to ‘think chest’, ‘think head’ and ‘think high risk’ to prevent these indirect causes of maternal death."
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