UK maternal deaths rise – again

For the fifth year running, the number of pregnant and postpartum women who died while known to social services in the UK has risen.

It now stands at 22 per cent of all deaths, according to a report published by the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit (NPEA) at Oxford University. This is up from 12 per cent reported a decade ago, a rise echoed in the overall maternal mortality rate, which increased by more than a quarter between 2009 and 2022.

Even excluding Covid deaths, maternal mortality has risen by 10 per cent over the period. Black women are now nearly three times more likely to die while pregnant or up to a year after giving birth than White women, and migrant women are nearly twice as likely to die. 

Women taking their own lives is still the leading direct cause of death between six weeks and a year after birth, and past reports from the NPEA’s UK and Ireland Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths and Morbidity have highlighted the fact that a large proportion of the women who died by suicide or because of substance use were at risk of having their baby removed from their care. 

Kirsty Kitchen, head of policy for the charity Birth Companions, which campaigns for improvements in the care of women who are facing separation from their baby, said: “Their needs are still largely absent from health and social care policy, and they are still struggling to access mental health services. Women are navigating one of the most traumatic experiences imaginable, alone.”