Federal law to fund state studies on maternal mortality

A recently passed federal law will provide grants to states to investigate the deaths of women who die within a year of being pregnant (Source: “Reducing Maternal Mortality,” New York Times, March 5, 2019).

By encouraging states to investigate maternal deaths, the Preventing Maternal Deaths Act, signed in December, aims to address the fact that women in the United States face a far greater risk of dying from childbirth complications than in many other wealthy countries.

A report released by the Commonwealth Fund in December that looked at 11 high-income countries found that American women have the greatest risk — 14 deaths per 100,000 births — of dying from pregnancy complications. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports an even higher rate, 18 per 100,000.

Whereas other countries have worked to reduce the risk of maternal mortality in recent decades, including Sweden, where the death rate is 4 per 100,000 births, and England, at 9 deaths in 100,000 births, death rates in America have more than doubled in the last 20 years. The report also concluded that African-American women face similar rates of death to those of women delivering in developing countries, with rates of 40 per 100,000, according to the CDC.