Does anyone know statistics/chances for a woman to die during child birth?

Question

I know someone whose mother passed away while in labor, the baby lived but unfortunately mother didn't make it,they say she was not known to have any pre-existing health issues and everything was supposed to be normal. Apparantly she had a cardiac arrest during the labor. I'm wondering how risky is childbirth in general for seemingly healthy females. I know that pregnancy and child birth are a beautiful part of life but it seems that we sometimes forget the risks involved for the mother. Does anyone know of other dangers child labor might entail for the mother?

Answer 1

that is a very unique situation was your friends mom at the hospital or at home  

Answer 2

Very few women actually die in pregnancy. Rate of maternal death per 100,000 births vary between countries - here are some:

USA: 12/100,000

UK: 9/100,000

AUS: 9/100,000

http://www.unicef.org/pon96/leag1wom.htm

In a developed country with a good health system childbirth is very safe and most of the risks are short term. Have a look at a pregnancy book for the kind of thing that could happen, or browse some of the better websites such as http://www.birth.com.au/Info.asp.

My impression is that serious problems are quite rare but certainly not unknown. Eg - hemorrhaging during birth or getting an infection. Problems that make life uncomfortable, such as some level of incontinence in the longer term, are more common, but can mostly be managed by making sure you do your pelvic floor exercises!

Answer 3

According to Wikipedia, the rate of maternal mortality is 17 per 100,000 births.  

"The major causes of maternal death are bacterial infection, variants of gestational hypertension including pre-eclampsia and HELLP syndrome, obstetrical hemorrhage, ectopic pregnancy, puerperal sepsis, amniotic fluid embolism, and complications of abortions. Lesser known causes of maternal death include renal failure, cardiac failure, and hyperemesis gravidarum."

Answer 4

Well in older days it was I believe 10% of all pregnant women would die during labor but it is much, much less now because of all the advancement in medicine and stuff like that. It isn't common at all now a days. If you do it with out any doctors and an home birth then the risk goes up.