The Maternal, Newborn and Infant Clinical Outcome Review Programme has published Saving Lives, Improving Mothers’ Care, an MBRRACE-UK report containing surveillance findings and lessons learned to inform maternity care from the UK and Ireland Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths from thrombosis and thromboembolism, malignancy and ectopic pregnancy 2020-2022, and morbidity findings for recent migrants with language difficulties.
This report is based on the deaths of 275 women who died in 2020-22 during pregnancy or within 42 days of the end of pregnancy in the UK, classified as from direct and indirect causes. It contains the following key messages:
- There was a statistically significant increase in the overall maternal death rate in the UK between 2017-19 and 2020-22 (remained statistically significant when deaths due to COVID-19 were excluded)
- Thrombosis and thromboembolism is now the leading cause of maternal death
- Deaths from mental health-related causes continue to account for a large proportion (34%) of deaths occurring between six weeks and a year after the end of pregnancy
- Women living in the most deprived areas continue to have the highest maternal mortality rates
- There was a nearly three-fold difference in maternal mortality rates amongst women from Black ethnic backgrounds and an almost two-fold difference amongst women from Asian ethnic backgrounds compared to White women.
It also contains six national recommendations for improvement.
Read the full report: You can read the report by clicking on the button below.
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