Official data on deaths of pregnant women due to Covid-19 show 145% more cases in Brazil than in the United States.

While on American territory the The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 55 deaths last week between January and September, in Brazil, 135 were confirmed by the federal government until August 1st – more than half of them involving women in the third trimester of pregnancy.

The overview of mortality among Brazilian women was presented by the Secretary of Primary Health Care of the Ministry of Health, Raphael Parente, in a public hearing in early August. Parente recalled at the hearing that maternal mortality is a chronic problem in Brazil, now exposed by the pandemic. And he assured that reducing the indicator is a policy of the current government. 

Risks

An American study published in June – cited in a note by the CDC – suggests that pregnant women with Covid-19 are more likely than non-pregnant women to be hospitalized, to need an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and to receive mechanical ventilation. The risk of death appears to be similar for both groups, but the topic is still the subject of studies.

In Brazil, the deaths of pregnant and postpartum women have been gaining media coverage with cases multiplying, generally in hospitals that do not have an ICU, outside the hospital environment or when there was less than 12 hours of hospitalization, according to the government. 

The Santos Dumont Institute has mapped at least 110 suspected or confirmed cases of deaths highlighted by the media between March 21 and September 18. Thirteen of these have been reported since the beginning of August, when the most recent official data was released. The stories became the subject of news portals and TV channels in the country between August 2 and September 18.

Click on the links below to learn more about the victims:

Jade Nascimento, from Piauí

Gilda Santos Costa, Natalia Cristina Ticianelli It is  Samara Silva, from Sao Paulo;

Marieli Lysakowski Santin It is Ariana Ferreira do Amaral, from Mato Grosso;

Viviane Souza Nairne and a indigenous person with undisclosed name from Paraná;

Camila Graciano, from Goiás;

Juliane Ferreira Aguiar, from Tocantins; 

Michele Paullino, from Rio de Janeiro

Luciclea de Moraes and a woman with undisclosed name in Minas Gerais.

A survey published in May by the Institute already drew attention to the situation of more deaths in Brazil than in other countries and to the need for special care for pregnant women and women who have recently given birth – women in the postpartum phase. Click here to read.

Recommended precautions during the pandemic – such as maintaining prenatal appointments – were also the subject of an interview with the Institute's general director and specialist in fetal medicine, Reginaldo Freitas Júnior. Click here to access the full interview.