Black women four times as likely to die in pregnancy

The 2023 report published by MBRRACE, the collaboration appointed by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership to run the national Maternal, Newborn and Infant clinical Outcome Review Programme in the UK, highlights a gruesome truth in terms of maternal mortality (death of the mother during or up to six weeks after pregnancy). Between the years 2019 and 2021, data collected by MBRRACE showed that women from Black ethnic backgrounds were almost four times as likely to die during or up to six weeks after pregnancy than White women ; for Asian women, the rate of maternal mortality was almost twice as high as for White women.

MBRRACE also found that women living in deprived areas, no matter their ethnic background, were twice as likely to die during or directly after pregnancy than women from affluent areas. 12 % of the women who died during or up to a year after pregnancy over the period covered by the report were at multiple severe disavantages, including mental health issues, domestic abuse or substance use, and maternal healthcare staff were often expected to care for women with those disadvantages without proper training. Mental health-related causes also accounted for almost 40 % of the deaths occurring six weeks to a year after the end of pregnancy.

Among the highest causes of maternal deaths between 2019 and 2021, Covid-19 accounted for 14 % of all fatalities during or up to six weeks after the end of pregnancy, with the report noting that confused messaging and vaccine hesitancy may have played a part.