“Behind every data point in this report is a life lost.”

Dr. Sameer Vohra, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, included that quote in a Nov. 25 release detailing the agency’s most recent data about deaths that occur during or within a year of pregnancy (tinyurl.com/MaternalMortality2025).

The most recent numbers are from 2021-2022 and stem from the work of review committees that determine whether a fatality was related to pregnancy while also assessing preventability, contributing factors and possible action steps.

In those two years, about 43% of the 220 deaths were associated with pregnancies. Two concerning data points are that pregnancy-related mortality is up compared to earlier reporting cycles and from this period potentially 91% of the deaths were preventable

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