Researchers have found why more women die during pregnancy and immediately after child birth.
They also found black women are five times more likely and Asian women two times more likely to die than white women.
Body weight causing complications for women. Between 2014 and 2016, more pregnant women have died either while pregnant or immediately after childbirth, much more than it used to be in the past.
This is because of age and the fact that they are getting fatter a report warns. In the UK alone, This is equal to 9.8 deaths per 100,000 pregnancies and is up from 200 deaths – or 8.5 per 100,000 – in the three years from 2012 to 2014.
AVOID GAINING A LOT OF WEIGHT DURING PREGNANCY
According to Healthline… Gaining a lot of weight during pregnancy may do more harm to your baby than good. During your first trimester, you only need about 100 extra calories a day to support your growing fetus. By your third trimester, that additional calorie number is closer to 300 per day.
It comes as more women are delaying a family in order to attend university, pursue a career and save to get on the property ladder.
Pregnancy rates are falling for women of all ages apart from those over 40, which are up 2% in a year and have more than doubled since 1990.
Those aged 40 or over have three times the risk of dying during or after pregnancy compared to those in their early twenties. Mums-to-be who are overweight are also more likely to suffer complications, have larger babies that require C-sections, or develop blood clots.
Almost six in ten women in the UK are now overweight or obese.
The death figures are published in the Saving Lives: Improving Mothers’ Care report, produced by the University of Oxford.
It examines the care of women who died by suicide or other mental health conditions, blood clots, cancer, severe bleeding or were murdered.The report says: “While we were once able to assume that pregnant women were by and large young and healthy, this is no longer always the case.
“Women now are often older, heavier and have more complex physical and mental health conditions when they become pregnant.
“They may be vulnerable in other ways too. They are therefore at higher risk of pregnancy complications.”
Researchers also found black women are five times more likely and Asian women two times more likely to die than white women.