New findings from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that cardiac arrest during childbirth occurs in about 1 in 9,000 pregnancies in the United States. Risk factors include hypertension, mental health conditions, and advancing maternal age. The research was published in Internal Medicine Annuals and analyzed data from a large cohort of mothers who delivered between 2017 and 2019.
The study drew on information from roughly 11 million women who gave birth in that period. It shows a rising trend in the frequency of cardiac arrest during labor and delivery. Earlier data from 1998 to 2011 reported about 1 case per 12,000 births, whereas the 2017–2019 interval shows approximately 1 in 9,000 deliveries affected by cardiac arrest. Despite this increase, survival has also improved, rising from about 59% to around 69%. The authors suggest that higher rates of obesity and later-life pregnancies may contribute to the uptick in prevalence.
Women with high blood pressure, asthma, diabetes, heart disease, mental health disorders, substance use disorders, and older maternal age appear to carry higher risk for cardiac arrest during childbirth. The rarity of the event means many clinicians may encounter it infrequently in practice.
Nonetheless, preparedness is crucial. In the event cardiac arrest occurs, rapid interruption of the pregnancy with an emergency cesarean section is essential because the fetus cannot receive adequate oxygen during maternal cardiac arrest. When an emergency cesarean is performed within five minutes, fetal survival is reported at about 96%. Delays beyond that window correlate with a substantial drop in survival, approaching 70% in the cited data. These findings underscore the importance of timely obstetric readiness and multidisciplinary response for at-risk pregnancies, particularly in women with the identified risk factors. (CDC study, Internal Medicine Annuals)