Improved ascertainment of pregnancy-associated suicides and homicides in North Carolina.

Injuries, including those resulting from violence, are a leading cause of death during pregnancy and the postpartum period. North Carolina, along with other states, has implemented surveillance systems to improve reporting of maternal deaths, but their ability to capture violent deaths is unknown. The purpose of this study was to quantify the improvement in ascertainment of pregnancy-associated suicides and homicides by linking data from the North Carolina Violent Death Reporting System (NC-VDRS) to traditional maternal mortality surveillance files.

Linking traditional maternal mortality files to NC-VDRS provided a notable improvement in ascertainment of pregnancy-associated violent deaths.