A team of researchers said on Friday that pregnant women having swine flu are 13 times more likely to fall “critically ill” than women who are infected with the virus, but not pregnant. The study was carried out among pregnant women in Australia and New Zealand.

As a part of the research, which was published on bmj. com, data was collected and analyzed in Australia and New Zealand’s winter of 2009 and revealed that 11% of the mothers and 12% of the babies did not survive, after they were admitted in the intensive care due to swine flu.

An earlier study that claimed that pregnant women are at a higher risk of developing complications if they contract swine flu is, therefore, confirmed with this research.

Ian Seppelt, from the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Influenza Investigators, and the lead researcher of the BMJ study, said, “Although a mortality of 11% seems low when compared to usual outcomes of respiratory failure in intensive care, a maternal mortality of 11% is high when compared with any other obstetric condition”.

The World Health Organization has so far confirmed deaths in excess of 16,200 the world over due to swine flu.