Fortuitous—ambiguously inappropriate to describe maternal death?

Irrespective of the pregnancy duration, if a women dies while pregnant or in the first six weeks thereafter, the death is classified as a maternal death. The reports on confidential inquiries into maternal deaths in England and Wales subclassify maternal deaths into direct, indirect, fortuitous, and unknown. Direct maternal deaths are when the death is as a direct result of an obstetric complication or intervention. An indirect maternal death is when death follows underlying maternal disease that is exacerbated by the pregnancy. Unknown maternal deaths occur in pregnancy or in the puerperium where no underlying cause is found. Fortuitous maternal deaths are deaths that occur from causes unrelated to the pregnancy and include violent deaths and suicide.

Maternal deaths unrelated to the pregnancy do occur and are important to classify, particularly …