Many years ago, far too many women died from complications related to being pregnant and giving birth. Too many kids ended up never knowing their real moms and being raised by the dads and sometimes stepmoms.

As advancements in medicine kept improving, the number of pregnancy related deaths began to drop, but they are not gone. In the United States today, there are about 700 pregnancy related deaths (this includes up to a year after giving birth). While one first thinks of severe bleeding and infections being the main causes of pregnancy related deaths, but surprisingly, about 1 in 3 of every pregnancy related death is due to heart disease and strokes.

However, the cause depends on when during that period of pregnancy – birth – and 1 year after, the death occurs. According to one source:

“The leading causes of death varied by the timing of the mother’s death, according to the report. Obstetric emergencies such as severe bleeding and amniotic fluid embolism, when the fluid enters a mother’s bloodstream, caused the most deaths during delivery. The week after delivery, severe bleeding, high blood pressure and infection were most common causes of death. Between one week and one year after delivery, cardiomyopathy, or weakened heart muscle, caused the most deaths.”

The same source lists just when the pregnancy related tend to occur:

“Of the 700 pregnancy-related deaths that occur in the U.S. each year, about 31% happen during pregnancy, 36% happen during delivery or the week after birth and 33% occur one week to one year after delivery, the report states.”

Another report listed:

Overall, heart disease and stroke led to more than one-third of the deaths.

• During delivery, obstetric emergencies — such as severe bleeding and amniotic fluid entering the bloodstream — caused most deaths.
• In the week after delivery, severe bleeding, high blood pressure, and infection were the most common complications.
• Longer-term, cardiomyopathy, or weakened heart muscle, caused most deaths during the period from one week to one year after delivery.
• The timing of deaths did not significantly differ between black and white women for most periods, but the report shows black women experienced more deaths in the later part of the postpartum period — mostly due to cardiomyopathy.

The first study also found an ethnic disparity among the pregnancy related deaths with black Americans, American Indians and Alaska native women being about 3 times more likely to experience pregnancy related deaths.

The reasons for this was generally attributed to a ‘lack of access to appropriate and high-quality care, missed or delayed diagnoses and lack of knowledge among patients and providers around warning signs’. I would add that lack of healthcare insurance also has to be considered as contributing factor.

This led the researchers to conclude that access to proper medical care would have been able to prevent about 3 in 5 or around 60% of the 700 pregnancy related deaths.

The bottom line is that every woman who is pregnant or has given birth in the past year, see her doctor regularly and definitely report any problems or complications. They may be minor, and then again, they may not.