Direct maternal mortality

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Maternal mortality in pregnancy and childbirth

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Unlike in previous Reports, the leading cause of Direct deaths for 2006-08 was genital tract infection, described here as sepsis, followed by pre-eclampsia/ eclampsia, which keeps its second place ranking

deaths from thromboembolism, the leading cause of death in the UK since 1985, have now dropped into third place, followed by those from amniotic fluid embolism



deaths from haemorrhage have also dropped, to sixth place, following those in early pregnancy



mortality from anaesthesia remains very low and is still the seventh Direct cause



Overall, the total numbers of Direct deaths have declined from 132 in the last Report to 107 in this

the decline in the mortality rate from thromboembolism between the 2003- 05 and 2006-08 triennia is statistically significant (P < 0.001), but the changes in other rates are small enough to be chance findings

Numbers and rates per 100 000 maternities of maternal deaths reported to the Enquiry by cause; UK: 2006-08

*Including early pregnancy deaths as the result of sepsis.

Centre for Maternal and Child Enquiries (CMACE). Saving Mothers'Lives: reviewing maternal deaths to make motherhood safer: 2006-08. The Eighth Report on Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths in the Uni- ted Kingdom. BJOG 2011;118(Suppl. 1):1-203.

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Cause of Death	Number	95% confidence interval
Sepsis	1.13	0.77-1.67
Pre-eclampsia and eclampsia	0.83	0.53-1.30
Thrombosis and thromboembolism	0.79	0.49-1.2
Amniotic fluid embolism	0.57	0.33-0.98
Early pregnancy deaths	0.48	0.27-0.87
Ectopic 0.26	0.26	0.12-0.58
Spontaneous miscarriage	0.22	0.09-0.52
Haemorrhage	0.39	0.20-0.75
Anaesthesia	0.31	0.15-0.64
Other Direct	0.17	0.07-0.47
Fatty liver	0.13	0.04-0.41
Genital Tract trauma	0
Other causes	0.04	0.01-0.31

All Direct	4.67	3.86-5.64

Direct maternal mortality

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