Experts describe increase as ‘absolute tragedy’ after data shows rate jumped despite Conservatives vowing to halve it
The rate of women dying during or soon after pregnancy in the UK has increased by 20% over the last decade, despite the Conservatives having pledged to halve it, according to figures experts have described as “an absolute tragedy”.
In 2015, the then Tory health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, vowed to reduce maternal deaths by 50% by 2030 and make the NHS “one of the safest places in the world to have a baby”. In 2017, he brought the date forward to 2025.
However, figures from MBRRACE-UK, a research project led by the University of Oxford, show the rate of women dying during the Conservatives’ 14 years in government went up, not down.
Health leaders and campaigners said the 20% increase between 2009-11 and 2022-24 was shocking and showed something had clearly “gone badly wrong”.
