Leading Cause of Death During Pregnancy Is....Pregnancy

With the news of yet another murdered pregnant woman, the media has taken it upon themselves to warn the public against an epidemic in our country. They have succeeded in drawing attention to the subject, while spouting misinformation and frightening women who believe that they are at risk because they are pregnant. To find the truth behind the litany of news stories, one only has to go back to original article that is being misquoted. The findings stated in that article are shocking, but not in the way that they are being reported.

The article that everyone is buzzing about was published in The American Journal of Public Health, in March 2005. The article was based on data received from the Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance System (PMSS) from 1991 through 1999. The system was set up, according to the article, to gather data on women who died during or up to a year after pregnancy. All modes of death were recorded and categorized. This included death by pregnancy related causes, accidents, suicide, and of course homicide. The researchers collected the data, 7,342 cases, to get the results.

Contrary to what has been reported in the media, the leading cause of death for a pregnant woman is complications due to the pregnancy. This number is hard to overlook, because 57.7% of the deaths reported to the PMSS--4,200--fell into this category. Death due to injury came in next, with 27.1% of reported to the system, or 1,993 cases. The rest were not related to the pregnancy and not injury related. That number is 1149.

The source of misinformation is within the injury related death category. Of the 1,993 injury related deaths of pregnant women reported, only 617-31%-- were due homicide. More pregnant women died as a result of motor vehicle accidents at 44%. Suicide came in third place at 10.3%. The article quoted the ratio of pregnancy associated homicide at 1.7 deaths per 100,000. Consider the fact that there were 274,087,000 women in the U.S. at the time of the last census (2000), and the number seems even smaller.

So, with all the headlines flashing that a pregnant woman is at an enormous risk of death by homicide, the true numbers should be of comfort. I realize that with such high profile cases dominating the airwaves, something is needed to supplement the endless cycle of stale footage. Instead of misquoting the information to freshen up stale footage, the same effect could be achieved by reporting the facts. One such fact should be that over half of the pregnant women who died between 1991 and 1999 did so due to complications from the pregnancy. This changes the focus of the news from homicide to prevention through obtaining proper health care. The homicides should not be ignored, but neither should the benefits of prenatal care. It is a boring issue, I admit, but the numbers are dramatic enough to draw interest.