Results
After sampling one birth per woman from among 853,517 eligible births, the total cohort comprised 634,290 births (Figure S1). The primary outcome of end-organ injury or death from 20 weeks’ gestation up to 42 days postpartum occurred in 1,969 women (3.1 per 1,000), including 62 deaths (0.1 per 1,000). Women who experienced the primary outcome were older, more likely to have a pre-existing medical condition, and to have had infertility treatment (Table S3).
The most frequent factors contributing to end-organ injury or death were acute heart failure (40.6%), need for assisted ventilation (29.2%), acute renal failure (12.0%) and shock (10.1%) (Table 1).