List of women who died in childbirth

This is a list of notable women, either famous themselves or closely associated with someone well known, who suffered maternal death as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO):

"the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management but not from accidental or incidental causes."

Note that this wording includes abortion, miscarriage, stillbirth, and ectopic pregnancy. Generally, there is a distinction between a direct maternal death that is the result of a complication of the pregnancy, delivery, or management of the two, and an indirect maternal death that is a pregnancy-related death in a woman with a pre-existing or newly developed health problem unrelated to pregnancy. Fatalities during but unrelated to a pregnancy are termed accidental, incidental, or non-obstetrical maternal deaths.

However, the WHO definition is only one of many; other definitions may include accidental and incidental causes. Cases with "incidental causes" include deaths secondary to violence against women that may be related to the pregnancy and be affected by the socioeconomic and cultural environment. Also, it has been reported that about 10% of maternal deaths may occur late, that is after 42 days after a termination or delivery; thus, some definitions extend the period of observation to one year after the end of gestation.