The U.S. maternal mortality rate is the highest among high-income countries, and the number of deaths in 2021 was the highest since the mid-1960s.
In the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2021, the maternal mortality rate in the United States has risen sharply, the report says. A total of 1,205 women died during pregnancy or shortly after giving birth in 2021, up from 861 in 2020 and 754 in 2019, the National Center for Health Statistics said.
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“The most powerful country in the world should not accept this as a reality. This is a crisis,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
According to the NCHS, there were 32.9 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2021, compared to 23.8 per 100,000 in 2020 and 20.1 per 100,000 in 2019. The maternal mortality rate for black women in 2021 was 69.9 deaths per 100,000 live births, 2.6 times higher than for white women at 26.6 deaths per 100,000.
The World Health Organization defines maternal mortality as death during pregnancy or within 42 days of childbirth from any cause related to or aggravated by pregnancy or its management.
The report does not specify the reasons for the sharp increase in maternal deaths in the US in 2021. But medical experts said the COVID-19 pandemic was a significant factor, along with socioeconomic conditions and a longstanding lack of access to quality pre- and postnatal care for many women.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has had a dramatic and tragic impact on maternal mortality, but we cannot let this fact obscure the fact that the maternal mortality crisis has already been and still is,” said Iffat Abbasi Hoskins, president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. .
Addressing “health disparities” should be a top public health priority, Hoskins said in a statement.
“Pregnant and postpartum women continue to account for a disproportionate number of maternal deaths, which are on the rise and are alarming,” Hoskins said in a statement. “This trend must be reversed.”
This situation is true not only for the United States. Inequality at many levels, whether due to racial, religious, gender or other social and material problems, is faced daily by millions of people around the world. Governments in many countries should pay attention to this experience and the consequences of government and public health decisions for citizens in order to avoid high mortality before, during and after childbirth.
Focus has previously written about maternal vaccination. Scientists estimate that vaccinating pregnant mothers could prevent 31,000 infant deaths and save $385 million in health care costs.
