Complications and care related to pregnancy, labor, and delivery among active component service women, U.S. Armed...

Diagnoses of "complications of pregnancy, childbirth, and the puerperium" include both morbid complications and indications for routine care of pregnant women. During 2012-2016, a total of 55,601 U.S. service members with live births (n=63,879) had 657,060 medical encounters with primary diagnoses of "pregnancy complications." The most frequent diagnoses were "other" specified conditions complicating pregnancy, childbirth, or the puerperium. Numbers of medical encounters with a primary (first-listed) diagnosis of any pregnancy-related complication or indication for care decreased marginally each year between 2012 (n=178,703) and 2016 (n=146,282). The percentage of live births affected by pre-eclampsia and gestational diabetes remained relatively stable during the surveillance period. For all age groups, percentages of live births affected by preterm labor decreased, but live births affected by obesity complications increased. The percentage of live births affected by gestational diabetes was more than twice as high for obese women, compared with non-obese women (12.4% vs. 5.5%). Findings suggest some opportunities to prevent sequelae for the mother and child and to mitigate longer-term impacts on force readiness.