Maternal programme of work
The maternal programme of MBRRACE-UK is run out of the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit (NPEU) at the University of Oxford. It collects information about all women in the UK who die during pregnancy or in the year following the end of pregnancy and information on select groups of women who experience and survive a serious illness in pregnancy or shortly after.
The findings of the Maternal MBRRACE-UK Programme are published in the MBRRACE-UK Saving Lives, Improving Mothers' Care annual report.
The maternal programme of work is comprised of three main areas
National surveillance of maternal deaths
MBRRACE-UK conducts surveillance of all maternal deaths in the UK that occur during pregnancy or up to one year after pregnancy. As the number of maternal deaths in the UK is small, maternal mortality rates for the UK are calculated using three years' worth of data to identify meaningful trends.
To align with international rates, calculated maternal mortality rates only include deaths that occurred during pregnancy or up to six weeks after the end of pregnancy. These rates also only include women who died from causes directly related to pregnancy (direct maternal deaths) or affected by pregnancy (indirect maternal deaths) and not those who died from causes unrelated to pregnancy such road traffic accidents (coincidental deaths).
However, MBRRACE-UK does report separate rates for late maternal deaths (between six weeks and one year after the end of pregnancy) and for maternal deaths due to coincidental causes. These deaths are also investigated as part of the confidential enquiries.
More information about how maternal deaths are identified and data are collected please visit the maternal data collection page.
Surveillance data is often published as a short Data Brief ahead of the full MBRRACE-UK Saving Lives, Improving Mothers' Care annual report.
Confidential enquiries into maternal deaths
MBRRACE-UK conducts confidential enquiries into topic-specific causes of maternal deaths on a three-year cyclical basis. As such, topic-specific chapters appear in the annual report once every three years. If concerning trends are observed in specific causes of death, these reviews may be expedited to provide valuable information sooner.
The confidential enquiries include the deaths of all women who die in the UK, as well as the Republic of Ireland, during pregnancy or up to one year after the end of pregnancy. They also include women who die from causes coincidental to pregnancy.
More details about this process are available on the maternal confidential enquiry page
Confidential enquiries into maternal morbidity
The final component of the Maternal Programme of MBRRACE-UK is an annual confidential enquiry into maternal morbidity. The topic selected for this enquiry is decided by the MBRRACE-UK Independent Advisory Group based on its national relevance and potential impact of the findings. The confidential enquiry process for maternal morbidities is the same as for maternal deaths but unlike the maternal death enquiry where all deaths are reviewed, the morbidity confidential enquiry reviews the care of a smaller subset of women to represent a larger population.