Black women more at risk of pregnancy complications

Wednesday, 4 March 2009 12:01 AM

By politics.co.uk staff

UK black women have double the risk of pregnancy complications, research suggest.

A report published on bmj.com today claims black Caribbean and African women in the UK have twice as much risk of experiencing problems than white women.

The authors conclude that for white women the risk of severe complications is around 80 cases per 100,000 maternities, 126 cases for non-white women as a whole, 188 cases for black African woman and 196 for black Caribbean women.

They argue the increased risk for non-white women may be because of pre-existing medical factors or because of care during pregnancy, labour and birth and is unlikely to be due to the socio-economic situation of the woman or whether she smoked or was obese.

The report adds the new research should help highlight to clinicians and policy-makers the importance of tailored maternity services and improved access to care for ethnic minority women.

The study also found Pakistani women have a significantly higher risk of severe pregnancy-related health problems and backs up previous studies carried out in the US, Canada and the Netherlands.

Scientists in the UK investigated 686 cases of severe pregnancy-related complications out of a total of 775,186 maternities between February 2005 and February 2006.

Complications experienced by the women included hysterectomy after childbirth, fits with high blood pressure (eclampsia) or blood clots in the lungs (pulmonary embolism).

The scientists found non-white woman are one and-a-half times more at risk of experiencing problems than white women, and the risks doubles for black Caribbean and black African women.

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