Most poorer countries have seen major drops in maternal mortality since 2000. While wealthy countries are generally seeing a flatlining or slight increasing trend, the rate has nearly doubled in the US. Acutely, (ie the medical issue not social causes) what is causing this to happen? What illnesses are pregnant women now getting more frequently? Why were we able to avoid these in a time (2000) where information sharing and technological capabilities were much worse? Don’t we have a good grasp on the general process of pregnancy and childbirth and the usual issues that emerge?
It seems as if the rise of technology in medicine, increasing volume of research on the matter, and the general treatment level of US hospitals would decrease or at the very least keep the rate the same. How is it that the medical knowledge and treatment regimens have deteriorated to such an extent? Are the complications linked to obesity?
In: 1594
The US CDC redefined “maternal mortality” to mean “any death of a woman that occurs either while she is pregnant or within one year of giving birth, regardless of the cause of death, unless the cause of death can be proven to not be the result of the pregnancy.”
The rest of the world redefined “maternal mortality” to mean something that is usually similar to “any death of a woman that occurs during childbirth. Deaths that occur while a woman is pregnant or within a short time of giving birth may be counted if they can be proven to be a direct result of the pregnancy.”
Its very rare for a coroner in the US to prove that a death that otherwise qualified as a “maternal death” was *not* caused by the pregnancy. Conversely, its very rare for health authorities outside of the US to prove that a death that wouldn’t otherwise qualify as a “maternal death” *was* caused by the pregnancy.
The result of this is that the vast majority of maternal deaths in the US come from causes that have nothing to do with pregnancy. There has been a general increase in mortality in the US due to obesity, hence Conversely, the vast majority of true maternal deaths outside of the US typically go uncounted in official statistics.
The US maternal mortality rate has increase modestly since the statistical redefinition. The vast majority of this is due to a surge that occurred in 2021, which itself was the result of inner city violence. Following the George Floyd protests, there has been a tremendous increase in inner city murders.
Many women living in inner city communities are pregnant and/or recent mothers. When they get murdered, their murder is counted in maternal mortality statistics for the above reason. The overall maternal mortality rate in the US is low enough that the surge in inner city murders has had a significant impact on the maternal mortality statistic. Outside of a handful of inner cities, the maternal mortality rate in the US has been more or less flat since the CDC redefined the statistic.
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