MBRRACE-UK: Saving Lives Improving Mothers’ Care – Lessons learned to inform maternity care from the UK and Ireland Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths and Morbidity 2018-20

MBRRACE-UK have published the MBRRACE-UK Saving Lives, Improving Mothers’ Care report for 2022. This report includes surveillance data on women who died during or up to one year after pregnancy between 2018 and 2020 in the UK. In addition, it also includes Confidential Enquiries into the care of women who died between 2018 and 2020 in the UK and Ireland from cardiovascular causes, hypertensive disorders, early pregnancy disorders and accidents, and the care of women who died from mental-health related causes in 2020.

Key findings from the report include:

• 229 women died during or up to six weeks after the end of their pregnancies in 2018 – 2020 from pregnancy-specific causes or conditions made worse by pregnancy, an increase of 24% compared to 2017-2019. Taking into account their surviving babies and previous children, 366 motherless children remain.
• Of the 229 women who died during or up six weeks after the end of their pregnancies, nine women died from COVID-19. Of those nine women, five were Asian women and three were Black women. Changes to maternity services and pressures because of the pandemic also contributed to some other maternal deaths.
• Black women were 3.7 times more likely to die compared to White women and Asian women were 1.8 times more likely to die compared to White women.
• The more than three-fold difference in maternal mortality rates amongst women from Black ethnic backgrounds and almost two-fold difference amongst women from Asian ethnic backgrounds compared to white women and the continued increase in maternal deaths in women who live in deprived areas further emphasises the need for a continued focus on action to address disparities in maternal care.

You can download the report here.