prolonged labor and mother's death?

Question

Could you please tell me what would be the mechanism of death in a mother with obstructed labor (dystocia) and how we can relate the death to obstructed labor? The typical case is a women dies during labor or within the six weeks following labor and we aim to relate this death to obstructed labor. How can we set a simple and reasonable criteria for this?
My best guess:
Septic shock coming out of infection as a result of prolonged labor OR hemorragic shock resulting from ruptured uterus would be the mechanism of death and we can just rely on the patient's record indicating a prolonged labor.

Any suggestion? a more intuitive and evidence-based approach? a more objective criteira?
Thanks for your time reading this and writing a comment

Answer 1

In my opinion, a prolonged labor poses more threat to the baby rather than the mother. If however we consider the cause of death to be the prolonged labour then there are many mechanisms.

One as you mentioned obstructed labour can result in a ruptured uterus > severe hemorrhage > shock > death.

Septic shock cannot result from obstructed labour, there are other reasons for that.

The signs we see in obsturcted labour in a mother are that the mother is exausted, and there is hard band felt on palpating her abdomen. These are the two signs which indicate that the labour is obstructed.

The mortality may also be associated with the increasing incidence of C-section that is performed in emergency due to obstructed labour.

Otherwise we are taught more dangers to the baby than to the mother.