Why is pre-eclampsia still causing the deaths of mothers and their babies?

Routine blood pressure monitoring during pregnancy has helped reduce maternal deaths from pre-eclampsia in the UK, but they still occur. Photograph: Aliia Arslanova/Alamy

Having had one normal pregnancy, Emma Bailey assumed that her second experience of childbirth would progress relatively smoothly. But, at 34 weeks, she began to suffer sudden bursts of stabbing pain just underneath her ribcage.

“It was really excruciating pain,” she remembers. “I was admitted to hospital, but they sent me home, saying it was probably just anxiety. I then had to be readmitted the very next day because I was in agony.”