“U.S. maternal deaths keep rising,” reported NPR final yr. PBS equally noticed, “U.S. maternal deaths more than doubled over 20 years.” CNN additionally reported, “US maternal death rate rose sharply in 2021, [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)] data shows, and experts worry the problem is getting worse.”
The rise in maternal deaths is a statistical phantasm argues a brand new research simply printed within the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology. “Our study, which identified maternal deaths using a definition-based methodology, shows stable rates of maternal mortality in the United States between the 1999–2002 and 2018–2021 periods,” conclude the authors. That is great information however what accounts for the headlines that cited a steep rise in maternal deaths?
The researchers notice that maternal deaths started to rise in 2003 when a being pregnant examine field was added to U.S. demise certificates. Consequently, if a girl who was pregnant and died in a automotive crash, from coronary heart illness, or most cancers the field was marked and counted as a maternal demise within the CDC’s Nationwide Very important Statistics System. This statistical misclassification course of is what has largely resulted within the reported steep rise in maternal deaths. Because the press launch accompanying the brand new research explains:
The CDC technique confirmed maternal demise charges of 9.65 per 100,000 dwell births within the 1999-2002 interval and 23.6 within the 2018-2021 interval, whereas the choice technique calculated demise charges of 10.2 and 10.4 per 100,000 dwell births, respectively. These startling statistics low cost the beforehand held perception that america maternal demise charges have been growing.
In even higher information, the researchers discovered proof that well being care throughout being pregnant and after supply, moderately than worsening, has really improved considerably in lots of areas. As well as, they discovered a slight narrowing of variations in maternal demise charges by race.