One in 263 pregnant women has complication

Severe bleeding, before or after birth, is the most frequent cause of serious medical complications occurring in pregnant women, it has emerged.

Savita Halappanavar died at University Hospital Galway last October from septicaemia after being admitted to the hospital 17 weeks into her pregnancy.

However, the first Irish national audit on maternal complications in pregnancy showed, in 2011, there was a total of four cases of septicaemia.