Maternal mortality and adverse child outcomes for women with disabilities: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Reducing maternal mortality and improving newborn and child outcomes are targets of the Sustainable Development Goals. Evidence on how these efforts are reaching women with disabilities is lacking. Objectives: to estimate global, relative inequalities in stillbirth, neonatal, infant, and maternal mortality for women with disabilities compared to women without disabilities. Methods: We searched MEDLINE, Global Health, PsycINFO, and Embase from 1 January 2015 to 28 January 2026, to identify articles on disability and stillbirth, neonatal, infant, and maternal mortality. We included studies that had a recognised measure of disability as an exposure, a control group of women without disabilities and at least one of the four outcomes. A pooled estimate for each outcome was done using a random-effects meta-analysis of the minimally adjusted results. Results: We identified over 4,300 titles, of which 17 papers were eligible for inclusion. Almost all data came from nationally-representative data sources in high-income countries. We found that women with disabilities were 4.66 times more likely (95% C.I. 1.70-12.75) to experience maternal mortality compared to women without disabilities. Women with disabilities were also 37% more likely to have a stillbirth and 27% and 48% more likely to have a neonatal or infant death compared to women without disabilities, respectively. Conclusions: Women with disabilities consistently have higher incidence of maternal, stillbirth, neonatal, and infant mortality, even in countries that have relatively low incidence of these outcomes. There is a lack of evidence globally and particularly from LMICs, and on effective interventions to improve maternal and infant outcomes for women with disabilities.