June 11, 2013
Mothers subject of morbidity research
Māori mothers will be a special focus of a new study into Severe Acute Maternal Morbidity, or SAMM.
University of Otago researcher Beverley Lawton from Ngāti Porou has been awarded $1.2 million from the Health Research Council to examine why pregnant, or recently delivered, women succumb to the disease.
The study will include an audit of the hundreds of women each year who end up in intensive care when pregnant or after giving birth.
Dr Lawton says it’s a significant problem for Māori whānau.
"Māori have three times the rate of maternal mortality compared to European. There are issues there so what can we do about it. That's why we're focusing on this area both because of the mother's health and the baby's health because they are really inter-twined. We need to find out what level of preventable SAMM there are for Māori and identify the clinical system issues so that we can do something about it," Dr Lawton says.
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