A study reveals that increasing levels of obesity may have led to a plateau in the death rate among pregnant women.
Maternal mortality may have reached a plateau for the first time in decades due to women having children later in life and the growing use of C-sections.
In Britain, the risk of dying during pregnancy or childbirth is extremely low, at approximately 9.7 per 100,000 pregnancies.
However, after steadily dropping due to medical breakthroughs since the 1930s, the rate leveled off around 2010. Academics say the halt is indicative of the “increasingly difficult” pregnancies facing British physicians.
In the previous few decades, the prevalence of obesity has increased, with up to a quarter of women being clinically obese and many more being overweight.
In the previous three decades, the average age of moms has increased from around 32 years old to about 34 years old.
Being an older mother increases the risk of stillbirth, hypertension, and pre-eclampsia. Similar difficulties are brought on by obesity.
Over fourteen years, researchers from the University of Edinburgh analyzed data on more than 750 thousand births in Scotland.
Women who were older, heavier, or had C-sections were shown to have a higher chance of dying during pregnancy.
Up to 52 percent more likely to experience severe maternal morbidity, including life-threatening diseases such as sepsis, heart attacks, and eclampsia, the start of seizures in pregnant women.
Dr. Nazir Lone, an expert in critical care at the University of Edinburgh and the lead author of the study, stated that the increase in risk factors for severe maternal morbidity will increase the demand on maternity and emergency care teams.
He stated, “The increasing prevalence of these factors among British mothers may halt previous improvements in maternal mortality and increase the need for healthcare during pregnancy and childbirth.”
Researchers discovered that mothers in their 40s and older were 44% more likely to experience an incident than pregnant women in their late 20s.
Also in danger were expectant mothers in their late 30s, who had a 22 percent higher probability of experiencing an emergency than younger mothers.
Extremely obese pregnant women, defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of 40 or greater, had a 32% higher risk of medical emergency than normal-weight pregnant women.
Women with a BMI between 30 and 40 had a lower, but still substantial, 13 percent increased risk compared to women with a lower BMI.
A previous C-section birth was associated with a 52% increased risk of severe maternal morbidity compared to those who had not.
Infection, blood clots, bleeding, and damage to adjacent organs such as the bladder and kidneys are risks associated with C-sections.
According to a previous study, moms over 35 are more likely to experience significant complications following a C-section.
Having multiple births, such as twins or triplets, was one of the greatest risk factors, with these mothers being 2.4 times more likely to experience an emergency.
Four times as likely to experience severe maternal morbidity were expectant moms with a preexisting health issues, such as heart disease.
However, Dr. Lone and his colleagues were most concerned about rising preventable dangers such as obesity.
The authors of a study published in the journal Anaesthesia note that the number of pregnant women who were obese grew to 26% in 2021, up from 20% a decade earlier.
The researchers, according to Dr. Lone, think their findings can be used to better identify women at risk for severe maternal morbidity.
In addition to suffering the medical emergency itself, pregnant women who did so had a higher chance of stillbirths and death, they noted.
British ladies have been having children later in life for years.
This is linked to women choosing to focus on their jobs and couples delaying having children until they can afford to purchase a home due to skyrocketing real estate prices.
