This is a worrying progression and figure. According to a report by the National Center for Health Statistics published Wednesday, February 23, the maternal mortality rate in the United States has risen again to reach a peak in half a century.
In total, 861 women thus died in the country in 2020 according to the criteria defined by the World Health Organization which take into account a death occurring during pregnancy or in the following forty-two days, for a cause related to or aggravated by this pregnancy or its care.
The maternal mortality rate therefore rose to 23.8 deaths per 100,000 births. This is the worst rate among industrialized countries. In comparison, Canada has a maternal mortality rate of 7.5 deaths per 100,000 births, according to OECD statistics for the same year. The American situation has steadily worsened in recent years: the rate was 20.1 deaths per 100,000 births in 2019, and 17.4 in 2018.
Strong inequalities
As for 2020, “Covid-19 probably contributed” on the rise, Donna Hoyert, who participated in the report, told Agence France-Presse (AFP). However, this disease was not mentioned in 88% of cases, and is therefore only responsible for part of the general picture, she underlined.
Maternal mortality declined worldwide in the 20thand century thanks to medical advances. But since the 2000s, the United States has once again been on the wrong track, unlike most other comparable countries. The last time the US maternal mortality rate was this high was officially in 1968 – although a new methodology has been in use since 2018.
The data also show strong inequalities. In 2020, the maternal mortality rate was 55.3 per 100,000 births among black women, compared to 19.1 among white women. “It has been repeatedly demonstrated that black women do not receive the same level of care” in the United States, explained to AFP Ebony Jade Hilton, an anesthesiologist at the University of Virginia, and expert on disparities in access to health care.