US Maternal Mortality Is Unacceptably High, Unequal, and Getting Worse—What Can Be Done About It?

JAMA Network, July 3, 2023

Areport released this spring by the National Center for Health Statistics summarized the strikingly high rates of maternal deaths in the US. In 2021, the US rate of maternal deaths that occurred while pregnant or within 42 days of being pregnant was 32.9 per 100 000 live births—more than 10 times the estimated rates for other high-income countries including Australia, Israel, and Spain, which all hover between 2 to 3 deaths per 100 000 live births.

Jennifer Abbasi, JAMA Network

JAMA. Published online July 3, 2023. doi:10.1001/jama.2023.11328