Black women hit hardest as maternal death rates soar in US
Category: Health, Science & Technology
Via: hallux • last year • 23 commentsBy: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The number of women who died within a year after pregnancy more than doubled between 1999 and 2019 in the United States, a new study has found, with the highest number of deaths recorded among Black women.
The study, published on Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, looked at maternal deaths between 1999 and 2019 — but not the COVID-19 pandemic spike — for every US state and five racial and ethnic groups.
There were an estimated 1,210 maternal deaths in 2019, compared with 505 in 1999, the researchers found.
Overall, the number of deaths per 100,000 live births rose from 12.7 to 32.2 in that 20-year span, while the number of deaths among Black women increased from 26.7 to 55.4. The greatest jump over time was seen among American Indian and Alaska Native women, however – from 14 deaths per 100,000 live births in 1999 to 49.2 in 2009.
Dr Allison Bryant, one of the study’s authors and a senior medical director for health equity at Mass General Brigham in Boston, said the findings should be a “call to action”.
“It’s a call to action to all of us to understand the root causes — to understand that some of it is about healthcare and access to healthcare, but a lot of it is about structural racism and the policies and procedures and things that we have in place that may keep people from being healthy,” Bryant said.
Among wealthy nations, the US has the highest rate of maternal mortality, which is defined as a death during pregnancy or up to a year afterwards. Common causes include excessive bleeding, infection, heart disease, suicide and drug overdose.
Rates among Black women have long been the worst in the country, and the problem affects people of all socioeconomic backgrounds. For example, US Olympic champion sprinter Tori Bowie , 32, died from complications of childbirth in May.
Last year, the White House released a plan to address what it called the “maternal health crisis”.
It pledged to increase access to maternal health services, collect more data on maternal health risks, and address gaps in the US perinatal workforce, particularly in underserved areas.
“Each year, thousands of women experience unexpected outcomes of labor and delivery that result in significant short- or long-term consequences to their health such as heart issues, the need for blood transfusions, eclampsia, and blood infections,” the White House said ( PDF ).
“Systemic barriers, together with a failure to recognize, respect and listen to patients of color, has meant that Black and American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) women, regardless of income or education, experience a greater share of these grave outcomes, as do rural women.”
According to the study released Monday, southern US states had high maternal mortality across all race and ethnicity groups, but especially for Black individuals, while Midwest and Great Plains states had the highest rates for American Indian and Alaskan Native women.
Between 1999 and 2019, the number of deaths per 100,000 live births rose from 9.6 to 20.9 among Asian, Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander women; from 9.6 to 19.1 among Hispanic women, and from 9.4 to 26.3 among white women, the researchers said.
“I hate to say it, but I was not surprised by the findings,” Dr Karen Joynt Maddox, a health services and policy researcher at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, who wasn’t involved in the study, told The Associated Press news agency.
“It’s certainly alarming, and just more evidence we have got to figure out what’s going on and try to find ways to do something about this.”
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Is this the price one pays for the "best healthcare" in the world?
Best depends on the metrics selected, who's quote?
After 10 years on sites such is this too many to name but most come from the "we're No. 1" patriots group.
All quality-of-life metrics are worse in Southern red states.
The mindless chanting of USA! USA! USA! doesn't change any facts.
Blue states contain 54% of the population and produce 59% of GDP.
Red states have 46% of the population and produce 40% of the GDP.
Students in blue states score significantly higher than students in red states.
Conservatism is a bankrupt mindset and worldview.
Keep telling yourself that..... well that, and there's no such thing as an econut.
Do you mean Americans that attend the Olympics?
“Systemic barriers, together with a failure to recognize, respect and listen to patients of color, has meant that Black and American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) women, regardless of income or education, experience a greater share of these grave outcomes, as do rural women.”
What are those systemic barriers? Is that comment just a conjecture, or can it be supported by facts? It implies that these are stupid and unable to communicate with their doctors.
Or it implies that some doctors think their patients are too stupid to communicate with.
Or perhaps it implies they're legacy med students that are too stupid to communicate with their patients?....
These medical students would be practicing physicians now.
The report in question was written in 2003.
My sister is a travel PA, currently assigned to a gastroenterology practice in Farmington, NM. Once you leave town limits, you're on reservation land. She has the occasional patient who can only speak Navajo. One of her greatest frustrations the last time she was assigned to the same hospital was the great disparity in care provided to IHS patients, who were frequently referred to her practice when their problems were worse than an IHS clinic could handle. There were frequently delays in care during Covid because the IHS did not provide rapid Covid tests for patients who had to test before undergoing procedures. Non-IHS patients received rapid tests, and therefore more timely care.
Would have been useful info had the article detailed the causes of death in these women instead of just generalities.
Why are women of ALL races experiencing this?
According to the article, yes.
Yes, I am aware.
I wondered what the cause of deaths were by category to see if there are any similarities among races.
What is America doing so differently compared to the rest of the world besides having high drug-use rates and horrible diets?
Seems like quotation marks are inappropriate.
Same could be said about some remarks.
Without knowing what ones you mean, I can't disagree.
You tellen me healthcare can't stop suicide or drug use?
Probably should just start euthanizing unfit mothers to get the numbers up, eh?
That is certainly a statistic that the US should not be number one in. Being an exceptional and rich country we should have a much better grip and result on this.
What do you suggest for solutions?
Since I'm not an MD the first thing I would start with is better accessibility to healthcare for women, in fact for all Americans.
Do you have any thoughts?
Maybe find out why it is happening and address the root cause instead of blanket statements about Healthcare for all that is years and years away. And I don't mean send our vp to find out or some lame ass committee that likes to hear themselves talk and solve nothing.
Actually, there are a number of articles/reports on just this lack of adequate care here are a few.
Wasn't Obamacare supposed to be the cure-all?