The CDC recently published a report on maternal death from childbirth. Surprisingly, mothers are at more risk after they give birth than they are during or before birth. In fact, 53% of childbirth related deaths happen a week to a year after birth. In total, 22% of deaths occurred during pregnancy, 25% occurred during or within a week after delivery, 23% occurred from 7 to 42 days postpartum, and 30% occurred 43–365 days postpartum.

 These findings are significant because most studies that look at maternal death keep their time frame limited to only a few weeks after birth. This research suggests that the window of what we consider postpartum should be extended, because we now know that new mothers are at significant risk for an entire year after giving birth. And this study only looked at maternal death. Many more new mothers become seriously ill or chronically disabled from childbirth related complications. Clearly more research is necessary.

The study found that the leading cause of pregnancy related death varied by race and ethnicity. For black women the leading cause of death was heart complications, for asian women it was hemorrhaging, and for hispanic women and white women it was mental health issues. 
The most concerning part of this study is that over 80% of pregnancy related deaths were deemed preventable. Preventable was determined by there being “at least some chance of the death being averted by one or more reasonable changes to patient, community, provider, facility, and/or systems factors.” If a mother dies or is seriously injured from childbirth in a way that could have been prevented by her healthcare facility or provider, that could be medical malpractice.