Severe Maternal Morbidity and Subsequent Birth—Understanding and Informing a Woman’s Choice

Childbirth has been a potentially high-risk event for women throughout human evolutionary history.¹ Nevertheless, maternal morbidity and mortality associated with childbirth has generally fallen over the last century worldwide,^2,3 with the most marked improvements observed in high-income countries. However, even in well-resourced settings, childbirth is still associated with increased risks of severe maternal morbidity, such as cardiac and cerebrovascular accidents, kidney and liver failure, delivery complications, uterine rupture, postpartum hemorrhage, preeclampsia/HELLP (hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, and low platelet count) syndrome, and severe mental health disorders.⁴