2020 Maternal Deaths: ″Not as Severe as We Thought″

The high maternal mortality rate registered in 2020 will be related to problems in notifications. Obstetrician Diogo Ayres de Campos, who is monitoring the work of the Directorate-General for Health in reviewing the deaths recorded that year, said this Wednesday morning in Parliament that the problem is not as serious as initially thought.

Although the final figures are not yet available, the expert explained that “many of the deaths identified as maternal deaths are deaths of women that occurred during pregnancy, but not due to pregnancy complications” or the aggravation of pre-existing diseases due to pregnancy.

“Many are not, in fact, maternal deaths”, highlighted Diogo Ayres de Campos, assuring that the situation “is not as serious” as initially thought.

As JN reported last May, the maternal mortality rate reached, in 2020, 20.1 deaths per 100 thousand births, in a total of 17 women who died due to complications of pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperium. A number that has not been seen for 38 years and which led the Directorate-General for Health to create a commission to study and monitor the situation.

Diogo Ayres de Campos is part of this commission and advanced that many of the maternal deaths identified in 2020 were poorly notified.

The specialist was heard this Wednesday morning at the Health Commission as coordinator of the Commission for Monitoring the Response in Urgent Gynecology/Obstetrics and the Birth Block on the possible closure of six public maternity hospitals.