Scots women are twice as likely to die during childbirth

Published on Monday 2 June 2008 10:44

SCOTS women are more likely to die during childbirth than in any other part of western Europe, according to new figures.

World Health Organisation research has revealed Scotland's death rate in maternity units compares badly against all its nearest neighbours.

It stands at more than double the European average and is on a par with less well-off parts of eastern Europe such as Latvia, Serbia and Belarus.

In Scotland, 13 women die for every 100,000 births, compared to seven in the UK as a whole, and a European average of six.

The alarming statistics, published to coincide with the start of the International Confederation of Midwives conference in Glasgow, have been blamed on poverty, poor diet, smoking and drinking alcohol.

Scottish women are also the fattest in Europe with three in five either overweight or obese.

A quarter smoke, with 20 per cent of pregnant women continuing to do so even when after then have passed three months.

The figures have led to calls for the Scottish Government to do more to tackle the social deprivation trap where people brought up in the least affluent areas get sucked into a cycle of poor education, ill health and poverty.

Dame Karlene Davis, general secretary of the Royal College of Midwives, who was due to present a keynote speech at the Glasgow event, said: "These figures should concern the Scottish Government and galvanise them to look at ways to reduce them.

"It needs co-ordination between education, health and social care. It does not mean in every deprived area mothers and babies are going to die, but they are at risk."

European countries with the best childbirth mortality rates among mothers were Greece, Austria and Sweden, with 2.7, 2.6, and 2 per 100,000 respectively.

But Italy on 3.2, Germany on 6, and France on 6.9, all compared favourably to Scotland.

Obesity, in particular, is seen as a major factor in the high number of Scots women dying during childbirth.

A woman is classed as obese if her body mass index, taken from her height and weight, is above 30. A 5ft 6ins woman would have to weigh 11st and 1lb to be considered overweight, or 13st and 4lbs to be classed as obese.

Dr Colin Waine, of the National Obesity Forum, warned the more women weigh, the greater the risk they will develop blood clots during labour, a main cause of maternal death. It also carries greater risks to the child; in cases of severe obesity, ultrasound scans may not be able to pick up birth defects.

There is also a greater risk of eclampsia, a condition of the placenta which is responsible for the deaths of about five women and 600 babies in the UK every year.