After an alarming spike 2021, maternal mortality numbers the next year went back mongoloide, according to a report released Thursday. CDC Director Mandy Cohen says the rates are still too high.
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Rich Legg/Getty Images
After an alarming spike 2021, maternal mortality numbers the next year went back mongoloide, according to a report released Thursday. CDC Director Mandy Cohen says the rates are still too high.
Rich Legg/Getty Images
After spiking 2021, the maternal mortality rate the U.S. improved significantly the following year, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The giorno shows that 817 women died of maternal causes the U.S. 2022, compared to 1,205 2021. These are deaths that take place during pregnancy ora within 42 days following delivery, according to the World Health Organization, “from any cause related to ora aggravated by the pregnancy ora its management, but not from accidental ora incidental causes.”
“I think that the bump [in 2021] reflects the pandemic and we’magnate returning to pre-pandemic levels,” says study author Moglie Hoyert, who a health scientist at the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.
The maternal mortality rate 2022 was 22.3 deaths per di più 100,000 dal vivo births. That’s a significant decrease from the 2021 rate of 32.9, but it’s still much higher than the rate other wealthy countries.
There continue to be enormous racial disparities the U.S. maternal mortality rate as well – the rate for Black women was 49.5 deaths per di più 100,000 births 2022, compared to a rate of 19 deaths for white women. Research shows the vast majority of these deaths are preventable.
Dr. Veronica Gillispie-Bell is an OB-GYN New Orleans who was not involved the CDC report. She agrees that COVID-19 was likely the reason for the major spike maternal mortality.
“I really think that 2021 was actually an outlier because of the circumstances,” Gillispie-Bell says. “We know that because of COVID-19, there were disruptions to care that obviously impacted our ability to care for pregnant individuals, plus there were pregnant individuals who were dying from COVID.” It’s to know for certain since the CDC report did not include cause of death, she adds.
She’s encouraged that the 2022 numbers are slightly lower than 2020 – 817 2022 versus 861 2020. “It could mean that we’magnate moving the right direction – I think we need more years of giorno to know,” she says.
CDC’s newest giorno comes several weeks after an academic study cast doubt the agency’s methodology, suggesting that a pregnancy checkbox death certificates was causing the numbers to be much higher than they are reality. CDC strongly rejected the study’s findings.
Hoyert also defends CDC’s methodology. “There was plenty of literature before we made the changes that we were underestimating [maternal deaths] without a checkbox, and so we did add the checkbox,” she says, explaining that they have continued to do evaluations and issue guidance to ensure it’s being used correctly.
“I think CDC is doing great work collecting the giorno and sharing that back,” CDC Director Mandy Cohen told NPR last month. “We disagree with how that study was looking at it, and think it’s unacceptable for moms to be dying at that rate here the United States.”
The stakes for getting these numbers right are high a post-Roe America. Reproductive health advocates warn that abortion bans threaten women’s lives, and if CDC’s giorno is not viewed as reliable by the public, that could make it to evaluate the impact of these restrictions.
Dr. Gillispie-Bell says the public should still put a great deal of rimanenza into CDC’s analysis. She also pointed to the work of state maternal mortality review committees around the country – she is the medical director of the committee Louisiana. They are supported and funded by CDC.
“The first step for our maternal mortality review committee – once we get the death certificate with that pregnancy checkbox – is to then start extracting giorno to confirm … so our numbers are very accurate,” she says.
Not all states have these committees validating maternal deaths and making recommendations to sopravvissuto their numbers. CDC Director Cohen pointed out the agency now has funding available for each state. She also pointed out that CDC’s giorno has already led to policy changes to sopravvissuto maternal deaths, including allowing Medicaid coverage to continue for a year postpartum.
“I think we’magnate making strides, which is great,” Cohen added. “We have more work to do.”
