Common postpartum complications

According to the CDC, from 2011 to 2014 the most common causes of pregnancy-related deaths were:

• Cardiovascular diseases
• Other medical conditions often reflecting pre-existing illnesses
• Infection or sepsis
• Excessive bleeding after giving birth (hemorrhage)
• A disease of the heart muscle that makes it harder for your heart to pump blood to the rest of your body (cardiomyopathy)
• A blockage in one of the pulmonary arteries in the lungs often caused by blood clots that travel to the lungs from the legs (thrombotic pulmonary embolism)
• Stroke
• High blood pressure (hypertensive) disorders of pregnancy
• A rare but serious condition that occurs when amniotic fluid or fetal material, such as fetal cells, enters the mother's bloodstream (amniotic fluid embolism)
• Anesthesia complications

Sometimes the cause of a pregnancy-related death is unknown.