Why Mothers Died and How their Lives are Saved

James Owen Drife is Emeritus Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Leeds and was the Medical Director of the CEMD. He has been vice-president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and was an elected member of the General Medical Council. Gwyneth Lewis OBE is a Retired Professor and lead for International Women's Health University College London and served as both the Director of the CEMD and the Maternal Health Tsar for England until 2011. She also edited WHO's 'Beyond the Numbers', a handbook for reducing global maternal mortality which has been implemented in over sixty countries. James Neilson is Emeritus Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Liverpool. He was Co-ordinating Editor of the Cochrane Pregnancy & Childbirth Group 1995-2020, and the National Institute of Health Research Dean for Faculty Trainees 2008–2015. Marian Knight is Professor of Maternal and Child Population Health at the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford. She is the main author of the current annual MBRRACE-UK Maternal Mortality Reports, the replacement for the CEMD. Griselda Cooper OBE is a retired Senior Lecturer at the University of Birmingham and consultant anaesthetist at Birmingham Women's Hospital. She has been Vice-President of the Royal College of Anaesthetists. Roch Cantwell is a Retired Consultant Perinatal Psychiatrist, Leverndale Hospital, Glasgow. He is Lead Clinician for NHS Scotland's National Perinatal Mental Health Managed Clinical Network and was lead psychiatry adviser to the CEMD 2011-2021.

1. Historical background; 2. The first steps: 1900–1939; 3. How the confidential enquiries evolved; 4. The missing chapter? Prolonged labour and obstetric trauma; 5. How the change began: the story of sepsis; 6. Haemorrhage then and now; 7. Hypertension: enquiries, trials and recommendations; 8. The story of abortion; 9. Challenging tradition: the story of embolism; 10. Pregnancy and illness: indirect deaths; 11. Maternal death due to anaesthesia; 12. Psychiatric illness; 13. The mothers who died: the social deteminants of maternal deaths; 14. The legacy in the UK: the concept of 'near miss' and the need to keep saving lives; 15. International maternal health: global action; 16. International action: personal views.