Australian Maternal Deaths: The Tip of the Iceberg

In Australia more than one woman dies every fortnight as a result of childbearing – some could be preventable - according to a study published by Wiley-Blackwell in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

The paper entitled “Making Pregnancy Safer in Australia: the Importance of Maternal Death review” outlines the maternal death monitoring and review process in Australia and presents the salient features from the recently published Australian maternal death report – calling for an improvement in the review process to prevent further avoidable maternal deaths.

“Despite being the marker of the health system’s performance, maternal deaths appear to have low priority in Australia- due to poor resourcing and underreporting of deaths and Indigenous status. The monitoring and reporting system needs to be strengthened in rigor”, says author of the paper, Associate Professor Sue Kildea, from Charles Darwin University’s Graduate School for Health Practice.

The latest report shows Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and rural and remote dwelling women are more at risk of maternal death in Australia. The importance of reviewing how and why women die in childbirth is hence brought to the fore. This study finds that leading causes of direct and indirect maternal deaths were infection, cardiac deaths, amniotic fluid embolism, psychiatric deaths, obstetric hemorrhage and hemorrhage from other causes. The paper emphasizes the need for key professionals like midwives, general practice obstetricians and obstetric specialists to work within effective health systems, to give women and newborns consistent access to skilled care throughout the reproductive cycle.

Maternal death review is an essential component of any maternity service. This study reinforces the need to further investigate Australia’s review process, and to allocate more resources to improve the quality, timeliness and capacity of maternal death and severe maternal morbidity review in Australia.” “We are not doing as well as other similar countries in this respect”.

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This paper is published in the April 2008 issue of Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (Vol. 48, Issue 2, 2008). Source: Blackwell PublishingNet News Publisher