Maternal deaths rising in UK despite fewer births, official figures show | Health

An increasing number of women in the United Kingdom die during pregnancy or shortly after childbirth, even if fewer babies were born, according to official figures.

While 209 maternal deaths occurred in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in 2015-2017, which increased to 254 in 2021-2023, the data compiled by the library of the Chamber of Commons show.

The upward trend highlights recent recognition by Heath secretary, Wes Street, that the bad care in NHS maternity services are so widespread that it has led to “the normalization of the deaths of women and babies”.

A maternal death is defined as the one who occurs while the woman is pregnant or within 42 days of the end of pregnancy, either in childbirth of a child or other event, such as moralization.

“It is appalling that the deaths of maternity is increasing even after the years of concern concerning the state of services which led to so many scandals with fatal consequences,” said Jess Brown-Furler, spokesperson for the liberal health of the Democrats who commanded research from the library.

“Families are torn and unimaginable pains are caused after years of shocking negligence so that now, even with the number of births down, the number of deaths is increasing,” added Brown-Fuller, who speaks for the primary care party and hospitals.

The rate at which these deaths occur also increases. The deaths of 209 in 2015-2017 meant that there were 9.16 deaths per 100,000 women giving birth. However, the 254 deaths in 2021-2023 meant that the mortality rate had then climbed to 12.67 per 100,000 births.

However, the figures of 2021-233 were slightly decreasing on the 275 deaths and 13.56 deaths per 100,000 maternity observed in 2020-2022. The two were the highest figures during the eight years that the library analyzed.

Its staff have gathered the figures for MBRRACE-UK reports, an official long-standing audit of the quality of maternity care and results, which is led by the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford and implies senior doctors and the Royal College of Nursing. Each of the seven reports they analyzed covered a three-year period, the most recent 2021-23 figures available.

Streetting announced last month the establishment of a “rapid national survey” on the level of England on what he called the “crisis” in maternity and neonatal services. He “would provide the truth and responsibility of impacted families and would lead to urgent improvements to care and safety, solving systemic problems dating back more than 15 years”.

The survey will examine maternity care in up to 10 areas that have aroused a particular concern, as in Leeds – where a scandal takes place – and Sussex. It will be undertaken in conjunction with families who have suffered from quality care lower than mothers and newborns.

Street also presides over a newly created working group to ensure that progress is made to combat what he described in his speech last month as “the biggest patient safety challenge with which our country is confronted”.

Women aged 35 or over are three times more likely to die than those aged 20 to 24 and black women are more than double the risk of white death women during pregnancy or shortly after, found Mbrrace-Uk.

In recent years, there have been official surveys on maternity scandals at the Bay of Morecambe, East Kent and Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trusts, and another continues in one in Nottingham. In addition, the ministers and the NHS published major strategies in 2016 and 2023 to revise care.

“We cannot allow a situation to persist where people die unnecessarily and their loved ones are left to pick up the parts,” added Brown-Fuller. She blamed the conservatives for having left the maternity services “decompose” while they were in power and challenged the street to take immediate “concrete measures”, in particular by ensuring that the recommendations of the previous reports were devoted.

The search for the library of municipalities also revealed that the progress of implementation in 11 of the 31 areas in which the NHS in England promised an action in its three -year delivery plan for maternity and neonatal services in 2023 fell. They include staff responding to women’s concerns during work and birth, women receiving kind and compassionate treatment during work and birth and receive adequate explanations during postnatal care.

The Ministry of Health and Social Coins has not commented on the increase in maternal deaths. Rather, he has highlighted the street decision to launch the survey and promises to revise the quality and safety of care provided.