Pregnancy represents a period of significant psychological vulnerability for women. During the perinatal period, twenty percent of them would present with mental disorders ranging from anxiety to depression. In those with pre-existing mental illness, the risk of acute decompensation is significant. For this reason, the World Health Organization recommends classifying suicides occurring during pregnancy and up to one-year post-partum as maternal deaths. Thus, between 2013 and 2015, 35 maternal suicides occurred in France, representing a maternal mortality ratio of 1:4 per 100,000 live births (95% CI: 1.0-2.0). By constituting 13.4% of all maternal deaths for the period, this group is the one of the 2 leading causes of maternal mortality. A total of 23% occurred in the first 42 days post-partum, and 77% between 43 days and one year after birth. 33.3% of the suicidal mothers had a known psychiatric history and 30.3% had a history of psychiatric care, unknown to obstetrical teams. Non-optimal care was present in 72% of cases with 91 % of suicides were potentially preventable, preventability factors beinga lack of multidisciplinary care and inadequate interaction between the patient and the care system. Strong messages were drawn from the analysis of these cases to optimize care: improve knowledge of the psychiatric history from the time of enrolment in maternity units, improve the identification of warning symptoms and the use of the psychologist and/or psychiatrist, set up a specific care pathway and multidisciplinary collaboration in case of known psychiatric disease.
Keywords: Care pathway; Maternal death; Mental disorders; Mortalité maternelle; Parcours de soins; Perinatal period; Période périnatale; Suicide; Troubles mentaux.
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