New research has used one of the largest available datasets on pregnant women to investigate the risk of death associated with anaemia. Recently published in The Lancet Global Health, the medical journal established a relationship between severe anaemia and maternal death. Anaemic pregnant women are twice as likely to die during or shortly after pregnancy than those without the blood condition.

Before analysing the results of the study, let's get into what anaemia is. For those who aren't familiar with the term, anaemia is a medical condition in which the red blood cell count or haemoglobin is less than normal. For men, anaemia is typically defined as haemoglobin level of less than 13.5 gram/100 ml and in women as haemoglobin of less than 12.0 gram/100 ml. Anaemia is caused by either a decrease in production of red blood cells or haemoglobin or an increase in loss (usually due to bleeding) or destruction of red blood cells.
Findings of the new Global Nutrition Report 2017 place India at the bottom of the table with a maximum number of women impacted by anaemia in the world, followed by China, Pakistan, Nigeria and Indonesia. In India, more than half (51%) of all women of reproductive age have anaemia, whereas more than one in five (22%) of adult women are overweight, according to the data.
CNN has reported on the research saying, "Many of the health problems that lead to maternal death are treatable and preventable. Anaemia is one such problem, affecting about 500 million women."
Previous studies were unsuccessful in linking maternal death with anaemia, but results of the new study indicate that when all known contributing factors are controlled for, the odds of maternal death are doubled in mothers with anaemia.
Of the 312,281 pregnancies studied, 4,189 were identified as cases with severe anaemia after accounting for other risk factors. Among those cases, there were 341 deaths. The study authors ran the numbers through two statistical models and found that both suggested a link between severe anaemia and maternal death.
One common form of anaemia among pregnant women is iron-deficient anaemia, which can be treated with iron supplements. A lot of it comes down to how health care services are set up. Are women delivering in areas where there are trained attendants who can treat them? Are they even aware that anaemia is a common problem?
Dr Jahnavi Daru, the lead study author and a doctoral research fellow at Queen Mary University of London, noted "We often think giving the iron tablets will solve the problem, [but] providing iron tablets has been happening for 50-odd years now, [and] this is still a problem." What is needed, she said, is a broader approach that takes into account access to healthcare, education and other factors.