ONE of Britain’s leading maternity experts has revealed how you can reduce the risk of deadly problems during or after pregnancy – after the UK saw a tragic rise in deaths.
The UK saw levels of maternal deaths return to almost 20-year highs between 2020 and 2022, raising concerns about the “very worrying trend”.
1
Research led by Professor Marian Knight, from the University of Oxford, showed that 13.41 women in every 100,000 died during or six months after pregnancy in these two years.
It was an increase of 53% compared to the 8.79 recorded in the previous three years and the highest value since 2003 to 2005.
The decision comes after a landmark inquiry concluded that good pregnancy care for women in the UK “is the exception rather than the rule”.
The damning report into NHS maternity services – known as Birth Trauma Inquiry – Detailed harrowing stories of mothers who were left lying in their own blood and urine or denied basic needs, such as pain relief, earlier this week.
NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard said the care received by the more than 1,300 women who gave evidence to the inquiry was “simply not good enough”, while Health Secretary Victoria Atkins said she was “determined” to improve the care mothers receive.
Professor Knight said the “worrying” rise in maternal deaths was fueled by a range of factors, not just the pressures facing the NHS in maternity wards.
An increase in the age at which women have children means they are more likely to have long-term health problems that can increase the likelihood of death during pregnancy, such as high blood pressure.
And there has been a rise in the number of mental health problems faced by women during pregnancy – particularly during the Covid pandemic – leading to a tragic rise in the number of suicides.
She told The Sun: “We can’t solve this in maternity services alone.
“There is a lot we can do in maternity services and some of the work we did and released late last year clearly showed some evidence that maternity services were under pressure, negatively impacting on the care women receive.
“But we also have to recognize that the care they receive elsewhere, before pregnancy, is very important, as well as after pregnancy, and perhaps in different areas of the health and care system.
“You know, we shouldn’t forget the importance of maternal mental health.
“So ensuring we have good mental health services as well as good maternity services will have an impact on these numbers.”
THREE FATAL CONDITIONS FOR BLAME
The number of women who died during and immediately after pregnancy in the UK declined during the 2000s and remained relatively stable until around 2018.
But the latest data shows there has been a rise in mortality since then, especially in the last three years during the Covid pandemic.
The leading causes of death from 2020 to 2023 in pregnant and recently pregnant women were thrombosis and thromboembolism.
Both are caused by a blood clot in the veins, which may be more likely during pregnancy because a woman’s blood clots more easily during labor and delivery.
People tend to dismiss symptoms as being due to pregnancy when in fact they are quite worrying.
Professor Marian Knight,
The second most common cause of death was Covid, followed by heart disease and mental health-related causes.
Professor Knight said: “We have definitely seen increasing concerns about women’s mental health, and unfortunately a number of women who died by suicide in 2020, and at that time mental health services stopped almost completely.
“You know there were no in-person consultations and I think there were definitely women in mental distress at the time.
“I mean, I don’t want people to think that perinatal mental health is only important during the pandemic.
“We know that between 10 and 20 percent of women who give birth may have a perinatal mental health problem, be it anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder.
“So it’s really important to be aware – for women to be aware of when they have worrying symptoms, but also for families to recognize when women are just not themselves.
“And I always say it’s really important for anyone who is expressing thoughts about suicide to seek help.”
The study was published as part of the Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risks through Confidential Audits and Consultations UK-wide program (MBRRACE-UK).
WEIRD PREGNANCY SYMPTOMS TO KNOW
If you’re concerned about health risks during pregnancy, it’s important to pay attention to any strange symptoms, Professor Knight said.
She said: “People tend to dismiss the symptoms as being due to pregnancy, when in fact they are quite worrying.
“So shortness of breath is an example. We all know that when we’re pregnant and walking up the stairs, we can get a little out of breath.
“But as a pregnant woman, if you’re sitting or lying down, you shouldn’t be out of breath.
“Shortness of breath in this type of situation is definitely a concerning symptom that we would normally recognize as being caused by heart problems if you weren’t pregnant.”
She added: “So you know, chest pain that runs down the left arm. This can be a worrying heart attack symptom during pregnancy.
“Don’t dismiss this as just being due to the pregnancy.”
If you’re worried, talk to a midwife, talk to your GP or obstetrician and don’t feel like you can’t talk openly. If women feel like they are not being heard, you can seek a second opinion.
Prof Cavaleiro
Heart disease affects around 7.6 million people in Britain, including 3.4 million women.
Heart or circulatory disease causes almost a quarter of all deaths in the UK – more than 170,000 a year.
Risk factors include high blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, smoking, not exercising and being obese.
Along with chest pain from shortness of breath, the condition can cause pain in the neck, jaw, throat, upper chest, or back in women.
It can also cause nausea, vomiting and tiredness that don’t go away or are excessive.
Professor Knight said: “If you are worried, talk to a midwife, talk to your GP or obstetrician and don’t feel like you can’t talk openly.
“If women feel like they are not being heard, then you can look for a second opinion. Take someone with you who can help defend you.
“Don’t worry about worrying symptoms without asking for advice. There’s no harm in asking for advice.
“Women should not be reticent to seek advice if they are unsure about the meaning of any symptoms they are experiencing.”
Birth trauma survey findings
The damning report found “shockingly low quality
It received more than 1,300 “harrowing” contributions from people who had traumatic births, including reports of stillbirths, babies born with cerebral palsy caused by oxygen deprivation and life-changing injuries to women as a result of serious lacerations.
“In many of these cases, the trauma was caused by errors and failures made before and during birth,” the authors wrote.
“Often, these errors were covered up by hospitals, which frustrated parents’ efforts to find answers.
“There were also many stories of care that lacked compassion, including women not being listened to when they felt something was wrong, being ridiculed or shouted at, and being denied basic needs such as pain relief.”
They called for the introduction of a basic standard in maternity services across the UK.
“There are currently several strategic documents relating to motherhood, but no comprehensive document,” wrote the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Birth Trauma.
It called on the government to publish a National Maternity Improvement Strategy, led by a new Maternity Commissioner, which would outline how to:
- Recruit, train and retain more midwives, obstetricians and anesthetists to ensure safe staffing levels in maternity services and provide mandatory training in trauma-informed care.
- Provide universal access to specialist maternal mental health services across the UK to end the postcode lottery.
- Offer a separate 6-week postpartum check-in with a family doctor for all mothers, which includes separate questions for the baby about the mother’s physical and mental health.
- Implement and implement the OASI (Obstetric and Anal Sphincter Injury) care package across all hospitals to reduce the risk of birth injuries.
- Oversee the national implementation of standardized postpartum services, like Birth Reflections, to give all mothers a safe space to talk about their birth experiences.
- Ensure better education for women about birth choices. All NHS Trusts must offer antenatal classes. Risks should be discussed during antenatal classes and the 34-week antenatal session.
check with a midwife to ensure informed consent. - Respect mothers’ choices about birth and access to pain relief and keep mothers together with their babies as much as possible.
- Provide support to parents and ensure the assigned birth partner is continually informed and updated throughout labor and postpartum.
- Provide better continuity of care and digitize maternal health records to improve communication between primary and secondary healthcare pathways.
- Extend the time limit for childbirth-related medical malpractice litigation from three to five years.
- Commit to tackling inequalities in maternity care among ethnic minorities, especially black and Asian women.
- The NIHR will commission research into the economic impact of birth trauma and injuries, including factors such as women’s delay in returning to work.
Source: Birth Trauma Inquiry Report
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
