Pre-Conception, Pregnancy, and Postpartum Characteristics of Women Who Experience Severe Maternal Morbidity

Julia A. Drew, Minnesota Population Center
Susan E. Short , Brown University
Risa Griffin, Ipas

Severe maternal morbidity (SMM) during pregnancy and from delivery-related complications among US women increased by 45% between 2006 and 2015, from 101.3 to 146.6 per 10,000 delivery hospitalizations. SMM during the postpartum period has also risen, increasing by 114% between 1998 and 2009. Most efforts to track severe maternal morbidity use inpatient data. Inpatient data does not provide a full picture of preconception factors, health during pregnancy, and the health events or experiences with SMM for which women sought care outside of a hospital during the postpartum period. The current study will use longitudinal 2000-2016 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey data to make two contributions to current knowledge: 1) we develop a profile of the preconception, pregnancy, and postpartum health of women who experienced SMM compared to those who did not; and 2) we produce refined SMM estimates using additional information from medical events occurring in the postpartum period.

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 Presented in Session 213. Maternal Morbidity and Mortality in the United States