A University of Hawaii medical school professor is working with the state Health Department and local lawmakers to reduce the number of women dying during childbirth in Hawaii.

Mothers in the U.S. are dying of pregnancy-related complications, or maternal mortality, at higher rates than in any other developed country, according to a news release from the University of Hawaii at Manoa issued Monday. While maternal deaths in Germany and Japan have significantly decreased over the past three decades, the situation in the U.S. has worsened by 300 percent.

In Hawaii, maternal deaths account for five to 15 fatalities every year.

Scott Harvey, director of residential simulation at the John A. Burns School of Medicine Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the state’s only obstetric critical care specialist, said there is no clear-cut explanation of why mothers in Hawaii are dying in childbirth. It’s unknown whether the mother’s age is a factor, given that deaths have occurred in teens as well as women in their 40s.

“It’s not been studied before, so we don’t really understand what the trend is, but that’s the whole point of being able to review all these deaths,” said Harvey, chairman of the state Department of Health’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee, in a UH news video. “And from this we’ve seen several from sepsis, we’ve seen several from high blood pressure and also from anaphylactoid reaction (serious allergic or hypersensitivity reaction) of pregnancy. So being able to establish the trends and figure out what is the problem is the first step in order to solve it.”

He is urging all women who are pregnant or planning pregnancy to seek care from a professional health care provider.

“The unfortunate thing is a lot of the maternal deaths that we’ve seen have had either very minimal or no prenatal care,” said Harvey, who earned his medical degree from JABSOM in 2010. “Some (women) didn’t even know they were pregnant.”

Boaters asked to slow down after turtle injury

State and federal officials are reminding boaters to slow down and take more precautions after a Hawaiian green sea turtle nicknamed Kaipua was found with what appeared to be a propeller injury to its shell.

Kaipua, who frequents Laniakea Beach on Oahu’s North Shore, should be able to recover from the injury, which cut up the back end of its shell, officials said.

Staff and volunteers from Hawaii Marine Animal Response and Malama Na Honu first found Kaipua with the injuries April 17 and alerted National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries officials.

NOAA’s veterinarian examined the turtle and concluded it had a propeller injury that was healing naturally and would recover best in its natural environment.

Kaipua was released back into the ocean at Laniakea.

Kaipua’s shell was etched with the number “1016” for easy identification. Members of the public are encouraged to report sightings of Kaipua to help the team monitor its recovery by emailing pictures to respectwildlife@noaa.gov. Turtles in distress also can be reported to NOAA’s hotline at 888-256-9840.