Study: Maternal mortality more than doubled in U.S. since 1999, highest among Black women

The number of U.S. women who died within a year after pregnancy more than doubled between 1999 and 2019, with the highest death rates among Black women, researchers said this week (Source: “U.S. maternal mortality more than doubled since 1999, most deaths among Black women, study says,” Reuters, July 3).

There were an estimated 1,210 maternal deaths in 2019, compared with 505 in 1999, according to a study published in the medical journal JAMA.

The number of deaths per 100,000 live births rose from 12.7 to 32.2 overall, from 26.7 to 55.4 among Black women, 14.0 to 49.2 among American Indians and Alaska Natives, 9.6 to 20.9 among Asians, Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders, 9.6 to 19.1 among Hispanics, and 9.4 to 26.3 among whites, they estimated.