Pregnancy-related deaths appear to be on the rise nationwide and are four-times higher than the goal set this year by the federal government, MSNBC reported.

As the New York City medical malpractice attorneys at Queller, Fisher, Washor, Fuchs & Kool reported last month on New York Injury Lawyer blog, the rapid increase in c-section deliveries might be partly to blame.

In California, the state that has done the best job of tracking the death of birth mothers -- the mortality rate has tripled in the last decade. Nationwide, about 110 of every 1 million birth mothers are fatally injured by complications stemming from childbirth.

The Joint Commission, the agency that accredits U.S. hospitals, recently issued an alert to hospitals to take steps to protect the health of expecting mothers.

"It's unacceptable," Commission Dr. Mark Chassin told the Associated Press. "Maybe as many as half of these are preventable."

Complications from c-section deliveries, deep vein thrombosis, or DVT (blood clots that can kill when they break free from extremities and travel to the lungs), hemorrhaging injuries and uncontrolled blood pressure are among the health risks proving fatal to mothers during child birth.

For every death, 50 additional women suffer serious medical complications from pregnancy and delivery, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

In 2006, the last year for which a year's worth of data is available, 13.3 maternal deaths were recorded for every 100,000 births. A decade ago, the rate was about 7. The federal government hopes to lower the rate to 3.3 maternal deaths per 100,000 births.