MAPS – Maternal illness, prescription drugs and stillbirth risk

Supervisors: Hely Katariina Laine, Katrine Mari Owe, Sari Räisänen

Background: Stillbirth is a devastating event affecting both the family and the society. Little is known about prescription drugs and maternal illnesses requiring hospitalization during pregnancy and risk of stillbirth. Commonly used medications during pregnancy include systemic antibiotics, respiratory system drugs and nervous system drugs including opioids and antidepressants. Knowledge on the effects of these medications on the risk of stillbirth is limited. Maternal illnesses that appear during pregnancy and associations with adverse pregnancy outcomes are scarcely studied.

About the project: By merging data from several high quality Norwegian health registries, the MAPS project will generate new knowledge on how maternal illness, hospitalization, treatment with surgery and/or prescription drugs relate to stillbirth. We will also develop a risk index to estimate individual stillbirth risk based on clustering of well-established risk factors.

Aims: The overarching aim of the MAPS project is to prevent stillbirth by identifying novel risk factors concerning prescription drugs and maternal illnesses requiring hospitalization during pregnancy, and by risk stratification based on already established risk factors.