Deaths of pregnant and young mothers hits a 20-year high
WOMEN are dying during pregnancy or soon after childbirth at the same rates as two decades ago, alarming data has revealed.
An independent review into maternal deaths showed 293 women died while pregnant or within six weeks of giving birth between 2020 and 2022.
Experts said it is the most compelling evidence yet that failures now span ‘the entire maternity system’.
They blamed NHS pressures alongside factors such as rising obesity levels and poorer overall health of mothers for reversing progress made over the past two decades.
The research by Oxford Universityled MBRRACE-UK (Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries) found the rise in deaths was across the board. Blood clots were the leading cause, followed by Covid, heart
‘A failure of policy makers’
disease and mental health issues.
The data showed stark inequalities with women in deprived areas twice as likely to die than those in wealthy areas, and black women three times as likely to die as white women.
Marian Knight, a professor of maternal and child health at Oxford University, said: ‘Our services are not able to prevent women from dying in the way they could, so I think we have to be very concerned. We’re not just talking one or two specific units... it’s something we need to be looking at across the whole of the maternity system.’
She called for matters such as prepregnancy health and personalised care to be ‘prioritised as a matter of urgency’. Kirsty Kitchen, of the Birth Companions charity, said: ‘It is truly shocking that, in one of the richest nations in the world, our maternal mortality rate is rising not falling.’
Almost 14 in every 100,000 women died during pregnancy or in the weeks following childbirth in 2022, roughly the same rates as in 2004. Rates gradually fell from 2004 to a low of around 9 per 100,000, before they started rising sharply again in 2018.
With data still preliminary, it is not yet known what proportion of women died in hospital or at home, or how different regions of the UK compare. But maternity professionals said it pointed to widespread problems spanning primary care such as GPs and health visitors, as well as mental health teams.
It follows a litany of maternity failures including Shrewsbury and Telford and East Kent NHS Trusts, with a record number of services failing to meet safety standards.
The Care Quality Commission found some 65 per cent of maternity services in England are now rated ‘inadequate’ or ‘requires improvement’ for the safety of care.
Last month, Donna Ockenden – the midwife tasked with investigating maternity scandals – criticised ministers for failing to provide sufficient funds to address problems.
She is leading a probe into failures at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, set to be the largest to date affecting 1,800 families and 700 staff.
Doctor Nicola Vousden, of the Faculty of Public Health Women’s Health Specialist Interest Group, said more also needed to be done to help women improve their health amid ‘persisting inequalities by ethnicity and socioeconomic status’.
The NHS acknowledged ‘further action is needed to improve the experiences of women and their families’, noting that investment ‘has increased to £186million annually to grow its maternity workforce, strengthen leadership and improve culture’.
Gill Walton, chief executive of the Royal College of Midwives, said: ‘The numbers in the report don’t lie – we are moving backward not forward.
‘ Midwife shortages are undermining the ability of staff to deliver the safest possible care. This is fundamentally a failure of policy makers and the Government to get investment quickly to where it is needed.’
The Department of Health and Social Care said it is ‘committed to ensuring all women receive safe and compassionate care... regardless of ethnicity, location or economic status’. It added that NHS England has published a three- year plan to make maternity and neonatal care ‘safer and more equitable’.