Risk factors and infant outcomes associated with maternal deaths in the UK from 2009-13: a national case control study

Summary

Previous studies have shown that certain socio-demographic and pregnancy related factors are independently associated with an increased risk of progresion from severe pregnancy complications to death among women in the UK.However, women who suffer severe complications may be different from the majority of women, who have a normal pregnancy and childbirth, and it is therefore important to examine whether women who die during pregnancy or childbirth differ from the normal pregnant population. Furthermore, the associaton of stillbirth and infant death with maternal mortality in the UK is not clearly understood from the available published literature.
The aim of this study is to identify the risk factors for and adverse fetal and infant outcomes associated with maternal deaths from direct and indirect causes in the UK in the 2009-13. In this study we will use anonymous data from all women who died from direct or indirect causes during pregnancy or within 42 days of end of pregnancy from 2009-13 in the UK and compare this with data from women who did not have any severe life-threatening complications during pregnancy and childbirth obtained from the UK Obstetric Surveillance System (UKOSS).We will calculate the odds ratios associated with maternal death in the UK for potential risk factors, populaton atttributable fractions (PAF) and incremental risk of death associated with the factors, and associations between maternal death and infant outcomes: stillbirth, admission to neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and neonatal death.

Publications

Journal Articles

• Nair M, Knight M, Kurinczuk JJ. Risk factors and newborn outcomes associated with maternal deaths in the UK from 2009 to 2013: a national case?control study. BJOG. 2016;123(10):1654-62.