After an alarming spike in 2021, maternal mortality numbers the subsequent 12 months went again down, in line with a report launched Thursday. CDC Director Mandy Cohen says the rates are nonetheless too excessive.
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After an alarming spike in 2021, maternal mortality numbers the subsequent 12 months went again down, in line with a report launched Thursday. CDC Director Mandy Cohen says the rates are nonetheless too excessive.
Rich Legg/Getty Images
After spiking in 2021, the maternal mortality price in the U.S. improved considerably the following 12 months, in line with a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention..
The information exhibits that 817 ladies died of maternal causes in the U.S. in 2022, in comparison with 1,205 in 2021. These are deaths that happen throughout being pregnant or inside 42 days following supply, in line with the World Health Organization, “from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management, but not from accidental or incidental causes.”
“I think that the bump [in 2021] reflects the pandemic and we’re returning to pre-pandemic levels,” says examine creator Donna Hoyert, who a well being scientist at the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.
The maternal mortality price in 2022 was 22.three deaths per 100,000 dwell births. That’s a important lower from the 2021 price of 32.9, but it surely’s still much higher than the price in different rich international locations.
There proceed to be enormous racial disparities in the U.S. maternal mortality price as nicely – the price for Black ladies was 49.5 deaths per 100,00 births in 2022, in comparison with a price of 19 deaths for white ladies. Research exhibits the overwhelming majority of those deaths are preventable.
Dr. Veronica Gillispie-Bell is an OB-GYN in New Orleans who was not concerned in the CDC report. She agrees that COVID-19 was doubtless the cause for the main spike in 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 laborious to know for sure since the CDC report didn’t embody explanation for demise, she provides.
She’s inspired that the 2022 numbers are barely decrease than 2020 – 817 in 2022 versus 861 in 2020. “It could mean that we’re moving in the right direction – I think we need more years of data to know,” she says.
CDC’s latest information comes a number of weeks after an academic study cast doubt on the company’s methodology, suggesting that a being pregnant checkbox on demise certificates was inflicting the numbers to be a lot greater than they’re in actuality. CDC strongly rejected the examine’s findings.
Hoyert additionally 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’ve continued to do evaluations and challenge steering to make sure it is getting used accurately.
“I think CDC is doing great work in collecting the data and sharing that back,” CDC Director Mandy Cohen informed NPR final 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 in the United States.”
The stakes for getting these numbers proper are excessive in a post-Roe America. Reproductive well being advocates warn that abortion bans threaten ladies’s lives, and if CDC’s information just isn’t seen as dependable by the public, that might make it laborious to guage the impression of those restrictions.
Dr. Gillispie-Bell says the public ought to nonetheless put a nice deal of inventory into CDC’s evaluation. She additionally pointed to the work of state maternal mortality assessment committees round the nation – she is the medical director of the committee in 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 data to confirm … so our numbers are very accurate,” she says.
Not all states have these committees validating maternal deaths and making suggestions to cut back their numbers. CDC Director Cohen identified the company now has funding available for every state. She additionally identified that CDC’s information has already led to coverage modifications to cut back maternal deaths, together with permitting Medicaid protection to proceed for a year postpartum.
“I think we’re making strides, which is great,” Cohen added. “We have more work to do.”