Maternal mortality in Portugal in 2020 is not as serious as thought, says doctor – Observer
Doctor Diogo Ayres de Campos revealed this Wednesday that maternal mortality observed in Portugal in 2020 “is not as serious as thought”, explaining that many of the deaths notified by computer did not develop from complications in pregnancy.
Diogo Ayres de Campos, who is part of a commission created at the end of May last year by the Directorate-General for Health (DGS) to assess maternal mortality, was asked about this matter at the Health Commission, where the PSD’s request on the eventual closure of obstetrics services in the country and the report by the Commission for Monitoring the Response in Urgent Gynecology, Obstetrics and Delivery Blocks, which it coordinated.
Asked by deputies about the causes of maternal mortality recorded in Portugal in 2020, whose rates rose to 20.1 deaths per 100,000 births, the highest level in the last 38 years, Diogo Ayres de Campos began by explaining that maternal mortality is recorded through the computer notification of these deaths.
Noting that the final data of the commission’s work are not yet available, the specialist advanced that “many of these deaths are not in fact maternal deaths”.
These are deaths of women that occurred during pregnancy, but that were not due to pregnancy complications, nor were they diseases that were aggravated by pregnancy”, said the also president of the European Association of Perinatal Medicine.
Addressing the deputies, the doctor said: “I cannot tell you that there is no increase in maternal mortality, because this assessment has not been completed, unfortunately, but it is not as serious as what we initially thought”.
Diogo Ayres de Campos said that the DGS started the work of “seeing, case by case, maternal deaths perhaps in October”, with a face-to-face visit to hospitals to assess cases.
In July, the general director of Health, Graça Freitas, said, at the Health Commission where she was heard on this topic, that the majority (76.5%) of women had comorbidities not associated with pregnancy.
“From the results that already came to us from 2020 – preliminary data -, about 76.5% of these women had severe comorbidity”, said Graça Freitas at the time, adding that provisional data pointed to 52.9% of deaths that occurred above the 35 years.
Rotating closure of emergencies “is not a civilized solution for a European country”