Maternal mortality surveillance, United States, 1980-1985

To better define the incidence, causes, and risk factors associated with maternal deaths, the Division of Reproductive Health, Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, CDC, coordinated a study by the Maternal Mortality Collaborative, a Special Interest Group of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). In 1983, this group established voluntary surveillance of maternal deaths for the years 1980-1985. The Maternal Mortality Collaborative reported 601 maternal deaths from 19 reporting areas for 1980-1985, representing a maternal mortality ratio of 14.1 per 100,000 live births. Overall, 39% more maternal deaths were reported by the Maternal Mortality Collaborative than by the National Center for Health Statistics for these reporting areas. Overall, women over 30 years of age had a higher risk of dying than did younger women. For each age group, women of black and other races who were 30 years and older having the highest risk. The leading causes of maternal deaths were embolism, hypertension in pregnancy, sequelae from ectopic pregnancy, hemorrhage, cerebrovascular accidents, and anesthesia complications. Of the 111 nonmaternal deaths, 90 (82%) were attributed to unintentional or intentional injuries. As a result of the success of this voluntary reporting system, the Division of Reproductive Health initiated National Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance in January 1988.