Published 3 March 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b357
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b357

Editorials

Inequalities in maternal health

Routine collection of more detailed data is key to improving knowledge

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Maternal health is important because it sets the scene, not only for survival and subsequent health of the infant, but also for the woman herself. The traditional measurement of maternal health is the maternal mortality ratio. Gross inequalities exist in the maternal mortality ratio between developed and developing countries, and the gap is not closing. The maternal mortality ratio in developed countries is about nine in 100 000 births; in sub-Saharan Africa maternal death is over 100 times more common, and the context is different from that seen in developed countries.¹

In the linked study (doi:10.1136/bmj.b542), Knight and colleagues use the United Kingdom obstetric surveillance system (UKOSS) to assess another aspect of maternal health—severe maternal morbidity. The study shows that severe maternal morbidity is significantly more common in non-white women than in white women in the UK, particularly those in black African and Caribbean ethnic groups. It also . . . [Full text of this article]

¹ School of Nursing and Social Work, University of Melbourne, Carlton, Vic 3053, Australia, ² Perinatal Medicine, Royal Women’s Hospital, Parkville, Vic 3052, Australia

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    StumbleUpon    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Articles

Inequalities in maternal health: national cohort study of ethnic variation in severe maternal morbidities

Marian Knight, Jennifer J Kurinczuk, Patsy Spark, Peter Brocklehurst on behalf of UKOSS
BMJ 2009 338: b542. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Incidence and predictors of severe obstetric morbidity: case-control study • Commentary: Obstetric morbidity data and the need to evaluate thromboembolic disease

Mark Waterstone, Susan Bewley, Charles Wolfe, and Deirdre J Murphy
BMJ 2001 322: 1089-1094. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Describing race, ethnicity, and culture in medical research

Kwame McKenzie and N S Crowcroft
BMJ 1996 312: 1054. [Extract] [Full Text]

Ethnicity as a variable in epidemiological research

P A Senior and R Bhopal
BMJ 1994 309: 327-330. [Extract] [Full Text]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• (2009). Ethnicity and Maternal Morbidity. JWatch Women's Health 2009: 1-1 [Full text]  

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Making Ethnicity Count

Mark RD Johnson
bmj.com, 8 Apr 2009 [Full text]

Online poll

Find out more >>