I'm a Maternal Health Physician. The U.S.'s Maternal Death Rate Is Shameful.

(an absolutely horrifying, depressing read)
I’m a Maternal Health Physician. The U.S.’s Maternal Death Rate Is Shameful.
11/10/2022 by Vineeta Gupta
The wealthiest country in the world has staggering disparities in maternal mortality rates. Abortion bans can and will worsen those disparities.



Lylah Salazar, 2, receives the COVID-19 vaccine from Angela Chavez-Ruiz, left, on the lap of her mother Getzy Martinez, 24, in Denver, on Aug. 5, 2022. The U.S is in 55th place on the World Health Organization’s maternal mortality rankings, which have only worsened since 2018. (Hyoung Chang / The Denver Post)

As a maternal and child health physician, human rights lawyer, and global health advocate with decades of experience around the globe, I can tell you: The maternal mortality rate in the U.S. is horrifying. It is so horrifying, in fact, that it doesn’t take a global health expert to tell you this. As the wealthiest country in the world, it is inexcusable that the maternal mortality rate is worsening (https://tcf.org/content/commentary/worsening-u-s-maternal-health-crisis-three-graphs/?agreed=1).

What is the maternal mortality rate?

To understand the United States’ ranking for maternal mortality, it is first critical to understand how the maternal mortality rate is scored. The maternal mortality rate is a measure of maternal deaths within 42 days of pregnancy termination due to complications of pregnancy, childbirth, and the puerperium in a geographic area divided by total live births for the same geographic area for a specified time, usually a calendar year, multiplied by 100,000.

Where does the U.S. rank amongst other global powers?

According to the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy, the estimated maternal mortality rate in 2018 in the United States was 17.4 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, putting the United States DEAD LAST (emphasis mine) compared to similarly wealthy countries. The U.S is in 55th place on the World Health Organization’s maternal mortality rankings, behind Russia with a maternal mortality rate of 17 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. What’s worse than the ranking? That number has only increased since 2018. In 2019, there were 754 cases of maternal death in the U.S. and the maternal mortality rate grew from 17.4 to 20.1. The very next year, 861 women died of maternal causes and the national maternal mortality rate rose to 23.8 deaths per 100,000 live births. The United States is the only country outside of Afghanistan and Sudan where this rate is rising. *********For perspective, the number of women in the United States who die giving childbirth annually has doubled over a 20-year period.******


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I agree with Michele Obama when she said that a society can be measured by its treatment of women and girls. By that yardstick, the U.S. still has a long way to go. It will take a serious reckoning with our broken healthcare system and our nation’s muddled history of structural inequality to address, but it most certainly can be done.

https://msmagazine.com/2022/11/10/maternal-mortality-pregnancy-death-women/