Dangers to pregnant women, new moms

Homicide and suicide outpace the more traditional causes of death for women during pregnancy or up to a year after birth, a new analysis has found.

In a study published in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, Dr. Christie Palladino, an OB/GYN and researcher at Georgia Health Sciences University, used CDC data from 17 states (including Georgia) to find 94 pregnancy-associated suicides and 139 homicides from 2003 to 2007.

Those figures greatly outpace the deaths from traditional causes of maternal death such as hemorrhage.

“It’s not what you want to read, but it’s the reality,” Palladino says.  Roughly half the suicides and homicides involved violent abuse.

Homicides and suicides are potentially preventable, says Palladino, who is working to enhance training of obstetrician-gynecologists in depression diagnosis and treatment.

Georgia Health News, with the cooperation of GHSU, interviewed Palladino about her research. Here is the video of the interview: