Over 200 million women become pregnant each year. Despite great progress during the past three decades, deaths during pregnancy and childbirth remain a serious (and largely preventable) risk for women in around 75 countries where 98% of maternal mortality occurs. The UN estimates that 532,000 maternal deaths took place in 1990. That number had fallen to 303,000 by the end of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) era in 2015. Haemorrhage accounts for 18% of these deaths, and is a particularly important cause of maternal mortality in Africa and Asia. Discovering new ways to prevent maternal death, especially from bleeding, therefore continues to be a high priority. The findings of the WOMAN—World Maternal Antifibrinolytic—trial, reported in The Lancet, are an important milestone in that quest.

The Lancet, April 26, 2017.

URL: www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(17)31111-X/fulltext