Key points
- A death during or within 1 year of the end of pregnancy is a tragedy for a family, a community, and for society. This is especially true since most of these deaths are preventable.
- Health care providers can help patients prepare for pregnancy and for potential problems during pregnancy.
- CDC is working to prevent pregnancy-related deaths.
What is a pregnancy-related death?
A pregnancy-related death is defined as a death during pregnancy or within 1 year of the end of pregnancy from a pregnancy complication, a chain of events initiated by pregnancy, or the aggravation of an unrelated condition by the physiologic effects of pregnancy. The death may happen because:
- The pregnancy causes a new medical (including mental) health problem.
- The pregnancy starts a chain of events that lead to death.
- The pregnancy makes an unrelated condition worse.
More than 80% of pregnancy-related deaths are preventable.
What factors contribute to pregnancy-related deaths?
Social factors are nonmedical conditions where people live, work, and play that can affect their health. Factors like income and access to high-quality care, for example, can affect a person's ability to manage conditions that increase maternal risk, like high blood pressure or diabetes. For more information on health disparities, which are preventable differences in the burden of disease, injury, and violence, please visit CDC's Health Equity website.
Starting prenatal care early, seeing a health care provider throughout the pregnancy, and being sure to attend postpartum visits can help to prevent and treat severe pregnancy-related complications.
Health care providers can help patients prepare for delivery and for any potential problems during pregnancy. Health care providers can listen for and share the urgent maternal warning signs that need immediate attention.
What is CDC doing to prevent pregnancy-related deaths?
CDC is committed to preventing pregnancy-related deaths and ensuring the best possible birth outcomes. CDC is engaged or supports the following activities:
- Hear Her campaign is a national campaign supporting CDC's efforts to prevent pregnancy-related deaths by sharing potentially life-saving messages about urgent maternal warning signs.
- Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance System (PMSS) is used to better understand the risk factors for and causes of pregnancy-related deaths in the United States.
- Enhancing Reviews and Surveillance to Eliminate Maternal Mortality (ERASE MM) supports agencies and organizations that coordinate and manage Maternal Mortality Review Committees (MMRCs) to identify, review, and characterize pregnancy-related deaths and identify prevention opportunities.
- Perinatal Quality Collaboratives (PQCs) are state or multi-state networks of teams that work to identify health care processes that need to be improved and use the best available methods to make changes as quickly as possible.
- CDC Levels of Care Assessment Tool (CDC LOCATe) is a web-based tool to help states and jurisdictions create standardized assessments of levels of maternal and neonatal care.
- State Strategies for Preventing Pregnancy-Related Deaths: A Guide for Moving Maternal Mortality Review Committee (MMRC) Data to Action is a guide to help facilitate implementation of data-informed strategies to prevent pregnancy-related deaths.
Pregnancy-related deaths can occur before, during, and after pregnancy.
- Trost SL, Beauregard J, Njie F, et al. Pregnancy-Related Deaths: Data from Maternal Mortality Review Committees in 36 US States, 2017–2019. Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, US Department of Health and Human Services; 2022.