United States – The American women who gave birth in 2022 were somewhat thrilled to know that the number who die at or soon after bringing a baby into the world has decreased. However, it is still higher than the pre-pandemic levels, as reported by HealthDay.
Progress Amid Persistent Challenges
According to the American U.S. National Center for Health Statistics annual report, in 2022, “maternal death” was defined as the death of a woman within 42 days of the end of a pregnancy “from either pregnancy-related causes, or the aggravation of an unrelated disease by the pregnancy,” and in that year, 817 women died.
This amounts to a 70% reduction from the 1,205 KIA deaths in 2021, but still, greater than what was recorded in 2019 and 2018 i.e. 754 and 658, respectively, according to the report.
Trends Across Races and Ages
However, oddly, the death rate only dropped for the native Americans but mostly among these populations with exactly the same racial and ethnic background.
Similarly, age really mattered.
“Rates in 2022 were 14.4 deaths per 100,000 live births for women younger than 25, 21.1 for those ages 25–39, and 87.1 for those age 40 and older,” the report authors wrote.
Maternal Mortality
Maternal death is a growing issue, for instance a recent study conducted in July found out that in the last two decades , the number of pregnant and post-partum women who die in the united states has tremendously doubled what is more severe for specific race individuals.
Despite the fact that those studies found high and rising death rates of women during childbirth, especially among Black, American, Native, and Alaska women during the period between 1999 and 2019.
Insights from the Experts
“Such variations in maternal mortality are the most visible part of the whole iceberg, and these are a big clue of what health risks communities that have the highest maternal mortality face,” Dr. Roth, one of the study’s authors, said when the study came out. He leads the Course on Cardiovascular Health Metrics at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), which is part of the University of Washington in Seattle.
“In the USA, maternal death is caused by vascular disease like severe high blood pressure or blood clots. And, just like heart attacks and strokes, maternal death shares many of the same drivers as heart failure,” Roth noted, as reported by HealthDay.
The NCHS E-stats 2022 report was published online on May 2nd, 2022.