About this data

Source: MBRRACE-UK, Saving Lives, Improving Mothers' Care 2026, and maternal mortality data brief 2022–24

• A maternal death is the death of a woman during pregnancy or within 42 days of its end, from causes related to or made worse by the pregnancy. Direct deaths result from complications of pregnancy itself, such as blood clots, bleeding or sepsis. Indirect deaths result from existing or new conditions made worse by pregnancy, such as heart disease or epilepsy. Deaths from accidents or unrelated causes are not counted.
• Sepsis combines sepsis caused by pregnancy (17 deaths) with flu, pneumonia and other infections (9 deaths). Other conditions includes a small number of deaths whose cause could not be determined.
• Late deaths, between six weeks and one year after pregnancy, are not included. Suicide is the leading cause of these.

This chart appears in Child and maternal health.