Maternal Mortality Linked to Death, Hospitalization in Infants
The infant mortality rate was 55.0 per 1000 live births following maternal pregnancy-associated death vs 4.0 when the mother survived.
A study published online in Obstetrics & Gynecology found that a mother’s death during or after pregnancy increases the risk for the infant’s death or hospitalization.
Eugene Declercq, Ph.D., and colleagues conducted a retrospective cohort study to examine the association between pregnancy-associated death or severe maternal morbidity and infant outcomes.
- The analysis included data from more than 1.6 million live births in Massachusetts between 1999 and 2020.
- The researchers identified 474 pregnancy-associated deaths, which were most common among individuals who were:
- aged 40 years and older (49.3 per 100,000)
- non-Hispanic Black (43.0 per 100,000)
- had public insurance (51.1 per 100,000)
- had a parity of four or more (80.6 per 100,000)
No direct quote available in the text.
Author's summary: Maternal mortality increases infant death risk.