Why Is the Maternal Mortality Rate So High in the U.S.?

Maternal mortality rates in the U.S. surged in 2021 to their highest level since 1965, as Covid-19 exacerbated longstanding problems including access to care and heart health. Here’s what we know about maternal mortality in the U.S.

How is a maternal death defined?
The World Health Organization defines a maternal death as the death of a woman while she is pregnant or up to 42 days after pregnancy. The cause of death has to be related to the pregnancy or its management. Maternal mortality refers to the number of maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births.

The latest data from the National Center for Health Statistics show the maternal-mortality rate in the U.S. was 33 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2021, the highest since 1965, compared with 24 in 2020 and 20 in 2019. Maternal-death rates are higher in the U.S. than in any other high-income country. The rates in France, the U.K. and Canada were eight, 10 and 11 deaths per 100,000 live births respectively in 2020, according to the WHO. Maternal-mortality rates in the U.S. rose 78% between 2000 and 2020, while dropping in most other countries, the WHO said.

Why is the mortality rate so much higher in the U.S. compared with other high-income countries?
There are several reasons, public-health researchers say. A big one is inadequate access to care for uninsured people, they say. Eleven percent of women were uninsured in 2021, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit that focuses on the health of mothers and babies. Women who are uninsured report lower use of preventive services such as mammograms and timely blood pressure checks and are less likely to have a regular doctor. They tend to have worse health outcomes than people who are insured, data show.

(snip)

Why does maternal mortality affect some ethnicities more than others?
Black and American Indian and Alaska Native women are two to three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women, according to the CDC. Researchers say there are several factors at play including less access to healthcare among these groups; fewer of the economic and educational opportunities that also contribute to maternal health; and discrimination.

More..

https://archive.is/SlGm6#selection-102.0-102.1