Saving Mothers' Lives: - Public Health Agency for Northern Ireland

134
10 Other Indirect deaths
Table 10.2
Causes of Other Indirect deaths and rates per 100,000 maternities, United Kingdom 1997-2005.
All Other Indirect Deaths
Number Rate 95 per cent CI
1997-1999 75 3.53 2.82 4.43
2000-2002 90 4.51 3.67 5.54
2003-2005 87 4.12 3.34 5.08
Diseases of the central nervous system
1997-1999 34 1.60 1.15 2.24
2000-2002 40 2.00 1.47 2.73
2003-2005 37 1.75 1.27 2.41
Infectious diseases
1997-1999 13 0.61 0.36 1.05
2000-2002 14 0.70 0.42 1.18
2003-2005 16 0.76 0.47 1.23
The women who died
Given the disparate nature of the diseases to which the women whose deaths are counted in this Chapter
succumbed, it is not possible to draw an overall picture of the type of woman likely to be at higher risk of
an Indirect death. However, of these 87 women, fi ve were aged less than 20, the youngest being 14, and
fi ve were over 40, the eldest being 43 years of age. Twelve were overweight with a body mass index (BMI)
over 25. These included nine women who were obese with a BMI over 30 and fi ve were morbidly obese
with a BMI over 35.
Sub-standard care
Some of the most tragic cases in this Report are to be found in this Chapter, all involving extremely
vulnerable women or young girls. And, as is the repeated pattern, the most vulnerable women who needed
care the most received the least. Of the four women who died in later pregnancy or after delivery and who
had no care at all, two were recently arrived non-English speaking illegal immigrants. One, a Bangladeshi
girl of around 14 years of age, had been brought into the country as a new bride with forged papers and
was only taken to the GP, at around six months of pregnancy, when her husband said she was “too ill to
have sex”. She died of tuberculosis a few days later. Another, traffi cked, woman who had been lured to the
UK under false pretences from an African country and kidnapped on arrival also spoke no English. She
was thrown into the street in mid pregnancy when too ill to continue working as a prostitute. She was found
by a passer-by and taken to the local hospital where she died of an HIV related illness a few days later. In
another case an English woman concealed her pregnancy as her unborn child’s father was a known sex
offender and she did not want her baby taken into care. The fi nal woman who died without having sought
care had a history of non attendance in earlier pregnancies.
Of the seven women who were late in booking or who were poor attenders, several had chaotic lifestyles. Some
were substance abusers with their other children in care. Two were subject to domestic abuse, one was needle
phobic and the other was an HIV positive health care worker who did not want to reveal her status.