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The Maternal Death

  • Chapter
Essentials of Autopsy Practice

Abstract

Maternal deaths in the United Kindgom (UK) are uncommon. The overall rate of maternal death has declined with a corresponding decrease in the infant mortality rate. Maternity services in the UK are sophisticated in comparison to less developed countries where the maternal mortality rate is still very high. Given the increasing inequalities in health care between the developed and undeveloped world, the maternal mortality rate is likely to increase. Even in the UK, immigrant groups are still over-represented in maternal death statistics1 with the risk in these groups being three times greater than that of white women2. Mortality is particularly high in countries afflicted with a high incidence of life-threatening infections, an important new development being the increasing incidence of HIV infection and its effects on the development of associated infections3. The aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of some of the more important problems of pregnancy which may present as maternal death, with some emphasis on issues which are likely to increase in frequency over the years to come. However, this remains an overview of the subject and thus for a more detailed consideration into this area specialist texts should be perused, since one short chapter cannot possibly address the myriad problems of complications of pregnancy4.

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Authors
  1. N. Carter
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  2. G. N. Rutty
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Forensic Pathology, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK

    Guy Nathan Rutty MD, MB, BS, FRCPath, DipRCPath(Forensic) (Professor of Forensic Pathology and Head of Division, Consultant Home Office Pathologist) (Professor of Forensic Pathology and Head of Division, Consultant Home Office Pathologist)

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© 2004 Springer-Verlag London Limited

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Carter, N., Rutty, G.N. (2004). The Maternal Death. In: Rutty, G.N. (eds) Essentials of Autopsy Practice. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-0637-1_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-0637-1_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4471-1168-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-0637-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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