Grant: Operating Grant

There are no national studies of pregnancy-related critical illness and death in Canada. Although the maternal mortality rate has decreased in Canada over the past three decades, it remains at 6-7 per 100,000 live births. Maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality is a critically important health outcome for individuals and the population. Continued improvement of pregnancy-related outcomes for mothers and babies is identified by the World Health Organization as a key marker of success of any healthcare system. Over the past two decades, there has been a recent trend towards increasing maternal age in many developed countries. Maternal age is associated with increased pregnancy-related morbidity and may lead to greater morbidity and mortality for Canadian mothers and their babies. Further, since healthcare in Canada is administered provincially and territorially, geographical diversity can lead to different healthcare service densities in Canada. This diversity may also result in different access to care and clinical outcomes for severely ill pregnant patients and their babies. We will perform the first national study aiming to evaluate geographic and temporal differences in maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality, which may allow identification of areas for improvement in services and therefore reduction in maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality in Canada.