Individual and system-level contributors to maternal and perinatal mortality: A systematic review of maternity safety reports in the UK
Aim
This study aimed to identify high-risk events and factors contributing to adverse maternal outcomes in UK maternity settings over the past decade, and to highlight priority areas for improvement.
Method
A systematic mapping review was conducted using MEDLINE, EMBASE, Google, and Google Scholar to capture both peer-reviewed and grey literature. National reports, audits, reviews, and guidelines on maternal mortality published between January 2010 and January 2025 were included. Two reviewers independently screened titles and abstracts against predefined criteria. A narrative synthesis was conducted using a prespecified Ishikawa (fishbone) diagram, and findings were visualised using Sankey diagrams created in Python.