title: Mortality in mothers after perinatal loss: a population-based follow-up study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess whether mothers who lost a child from stillbirth or in the first week of life have an increased overall mortality and cause-specific mortality.
  
  
  METHODS
  A population based follow-up study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data from Danish national registers.
  
  
  METHODS
  All mothers in Denmark were included in the cohort at time of their first delivery from 1 January 1980 to 31 December 2008 and followed until 31 December 2009 or death, whichever came first.
  
  
  METHODS
  The association between perinatal loss and total and cause-specific mortality in mothers was estimated with hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) calculated using Cox proportional hazards regression analyses.
  
  
  METHODS
  Overall mortality and cause-specific mortality.
  
  
  RESULTS
  During the follow-up period, 838,331 mothers in the cohort gave birth to one or more children and 7690 mothers (0.92%) experienced a perinatal loss. During follow-up, 8883 mothers (1.06%) died. There was an increased overall mortality for mothers who experienced a perinatal loss adjusted for maternal age and educational level, hazard ratio (HR) 1.83 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.55-2.17]. The strongest association was seen in mortality from cardiovascular diseases (CVD) with an HR of 2.29 (95% CI 1.48-3.52) adjusted for CVD at time of delivery. We found no association between a perinatal loss and mortality from traumatic causes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Mothers who experience a perinatal loss have an increased mortality, especially from CVD.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Clinical Research, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark.|Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Aarhus University Hospital Skejby, Aarhus, Denmark.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hvidtjørn
authors.affiliation: Section for Epidemiology, Department of Public Health, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Section for Epidemiology, Department of Public Health, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark.|National Centre for Register-based Research, Department of Economics and Business, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Schendel
authors.affiliation: Section for Biostatistics, Department of Public Health, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Thorlund Parner
authors.affiliation: Perinatal Epidemiology Research Unit, Department of Pediatrics, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Brink Henriksen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002423:Cause of Death; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008428:Maternal Mortality; D008875:Middle Aged; D066087:Perinatal Death
keywords: Mortality; perinatal loss; stillbirths