COVID-19, hemorrhage and hypertension were leading causes of maternal deaths in a one-year period in Mexico.

‘New study highlights the importance of timely prenatal care and point to web-based and telemedicine’s value in improving care when in-person care is limited.’
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Maternal mortality is considered a key indicator of health care system access and availability. Access to quality prenatal and postpartum care can prevent maternal deaths in many cases. However, pandemic control efforts and shifting of health care resources led to reductions in prenatal care visits and the amount of care women received after giving birth.Read More..





Pregnancy can also cause changes in respiratory and immune function. This could affect the severity of COVID-19 infections and lead to poorer outcomes.
Genny Carrillo, MD, ScD, associate professor at the Texas A&M School of Public Health, and researchers from hospitals and public health agencies in Mexico assessed data from the official death certificates, a national epidemiological surveillance database, and a weekly report of women with diagnosed or suspected COVID-19 who were pregnant or had recently given birth.
These data included information on age, ethnicity, diagnosis codes, insurance status and other factors. The researchers analyzed the data to calculate the number of maternal deaths per 100,000 births and compared that ratio to previous years. They also focused on maternal deaths directly linked to COVID-19.
The analysis found more than 1,000 maternal deaths in Mexico during the study period, which amounted to raise in maternal mortality of nearly 60 percent, which contrasts with a decrease in the maternal mortality ratio seen in Mexico between 2018 and 2019. The researchers found that COVID-19 was the leading cause of maternal death during the study period.
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The rise in the number of COVID-19 deaths could be attributed to difficulties in getting intensive care access. Other causes could be due to changes in health care access during the pandemic.
COVID-19 pandemic dramatically increased maternal mortality in Mexico. These findings highlight the importance of timely prenatal care and point to web-based and telemedicine’s value in improving care when in-person care is limited.
Source-Medindia