Table III.
Proposed “Definite” causes of death
| Maternal death |
| unintentional injuries |
| Toxic (including teratogenic) injury |
| Physical injury |
| Homicide |
| Suicide |
| Complications of medical and surgical care |
| Therapeutic drug or radiation exposure during pregnancy |
| Intra-gestational uterine surgery |
| Diseases that cause maternal death during pregnancy |
| Neoplasia |
| Cardiovascular diseases |
| Hematological diseases |
| Infectious diseases |
| Birth injuries |
| Uterine rupture |
| Dystocia or malpresentation |
| Attempted instrumental vaginal delivery |
| Without attempted instrumental vaginal delivery |
| Placental lesions (excluding infection) |
| Umbilical cord lesions with clinical and/or histologic evidence of umbilical cord vessel obstruction |
| Umbilical cord prolapse |
| True knots with evidence of circulatory compromise |
| Strangulation due to long cord |
| Furcate insertion |
| Velamentous insertion |
| Neoplasms of the umbilical cord |
| Lesions involving the placental parenchyma |
| Abruptio placenta |
| Intraparenchymal thrombi/fibrin deposition involving the entire placental |
| parenchyma |
| Infarction of the entire placental parenchyma |
| Neoplasms or developmental lesions involving the entire placental parenchyma |
| Mesenchymal dysplasia |
| A-V malformations etc. |
| Hydrops fetalis, marked, immune or non-immune Complications multiple gestation |
| Twin-twin transfusion syndrome (Advanced stage) |
| TRAP (twin reversed arterial perfusion) sequence |
| Strangulation due to umbilical cord entanglement (Monoamnionic-monochorionic gestations) |
| Lethal congenital developmental conditions |
| Fetal aneuploidy |
| Chromosome 19, mosaic trisomy 19 |
| Tetraploidy 92XXXX,92XXYY |
| Triploidy 69XXX,69XXY |
| Bony dysplasias with thoracic constriction and evidence of hemodynamic compromise. |
| Achondrogenesis |
| Asphyxiating thoracic dysplasia |
| Camptomelia, short gut, polycystic kidney/liver, polysplenia |
| Chondrodysplasia sequences |
| Hypochondrogenesis |
| Osteogenesis imperfecta congenita IIa |
| Short rib-polydactyly syndromes |
| Spondylohypoplasia, arthrogryposis, popliteal pterygium |
| Fetal akinesia sequence |
| Lethal multiple pterygium syndrome |
| Infections |
| Chronic fetal/placental infection, fulminant |
| Syphilis |
| Rubella |
| Toxoplasmosis |
| Cytomegalovirus |
| Acute fetal/placental infection, fulminant |
| Herpes simplex |
| Varicella |
| Cytomegalovirus |