The economic burden of maternal mortality: a scoping review

Each case of maternal death implies a loss for the family, children, partner and community, impacting the family, society and economy. There is limited research which focuses on the economic and social costs of maternal mortality. This paper aims to synthesize the literature on maternal mortality and the economic burden it imposes, highlighting the scope of research and methods used. We employed a scoping review methodology guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) to rapidly map studies on maternal deaths and associated economic burdens. Articles covering this domain were retrieved from PubMed and Google Scholar, including English-written papers published from inception until April 2025. Articles were assessed by two reviewers, screened against the eligibility criteria and data were extracted on the study’s author, year of publication, aim of study and summary of findings. Eight papers focusing on the economic burden of maternal deaths were included out of the 188 papers identified. Cost-of-illness approach was the major approach to estimating the economic burden imposed by maternal mortality with studies estimating direct and indirect costs at household and country levels. The reported estimates originate from separate analyses conducted in different study settings, and the year of analysis is provided for each figure. At the household-level, economic burden of maternal mortality ranged from 32.0% to 37.0% loss of annual income and 24.9% reduction in expenditure on households in rural China in 2013. At the country/regional level, a unit percentage rise in maternal mortality ratio caused a 0.11% decrease in gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in the African region in 2006 and 167,913 maternal deaths amounted to Int$5.53 billion loss in terms of potential non-health GDP in 2013 within the region. Between 2018 and 2020, the cumulative years of potential lost life was 113,953 with a total value of a statistical life of US$27.4 billion which were attributed to 2273 cases of maternal mortality in the United States of America. Overall, maternal deaths have been demonstrated to impose significant economic burdens on households, communities and nations. Additional research is however required to develop and standardise robust methodologies for estimating the economic costs associated with maternal deaths, which is essential for informing policy and advancing progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals.