Covid increased the number of maternal deaths by 40% in 2020 – 01/19/2023 – Health

A new Brazilian study concluded that in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, there was a 40% increase in the number of maternal deaths in the country compared to previous years. In total, 549 maternal deaths were caused by Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.

But this increase observed during the health crisis was not just a direct result of the disease. It was already expected that Covid would cause an excess of deaths, a term used to refer to the number that exceeds what is normally seen. However, a share of 14% of maternal deaths exceeds what was estimated for the atypical situation of the health emergency.

The point is an indication that the pandemic caused an indirect impact on the health system and, consequently, among pregnant and puerperal women, as in the difficulty of attending prenatal care.

For a death to be considered maternal, the death must occur during pregnancy, childbirth or within 42 days of childbirth. Another point is that the cause of death must be related or aggravated by the pregnancy.

The new study is one more that demonstrates how Brazil is experiencing a growth in the number of maternal deaths. The scenario hinders the goal of reducing the rate of this type of death by 2030, considering the goals of sustainable development of the UN (United Nations).

Published in the journal BMJ Pregnancy and Childbirth, the survey was carried out by Fiocruz’s Covid-19 Observatory. Data from the SIM (Mortality Information System) were used to estimate the expected number of maternal deaths in 2020, while information from the Sivep-Flu (Epidemiological Surveillance System for Influenza) served as the basis for calculating the number of directly related deaths. with Covid.

Initially, the researchers measured the number of maternal deaths caused by Covid-19, a number that was compared with records from previous years. It was also possible to calculate the general excess of total mortality in the case of maternal deaths in 2020.

When looking at the number of maternal deaths during the year 2020, most of them occurred between April and August and then between October and December.

The authors explain that the peak of Covid-19 in Brazil during the first year of the pandemic was in June. For comparison purposes, in that month, there was a 56% increase in maternal deaths compared to what was expected when observing data from previous years.

The study also investigated the profile of maternal deaths considering some social variables. It was concluded, for example, that the risk of registering a maternal death was greater among black women, those who lived in rural areas or who needed to move to another city in order to obtain medical assistance.

This observation is consistent with the fact that maternal deaths have a strong relationship with social inequalities. The authors mention that, in the literature, the perception that the increase in deaths among pregnant and postpartum women is associated with an increase in poverty and hunger, for example, is already solid.

The authors, then, draw attention to the fact that the high rate of excess maternal deaths in the first year of the pandemic is a sign of the failure to have a health system able to meet the health needs of pregnant and postpartum women. The improvement of the scenario, however, does not depend only on Brazil.

“A solution requires the involvement of the international community as this affects global development,” the authors write in the article.