MacDorman research on U.S. maternal mortality increase featured on CNN
Faculty Associate Marian MacDorman and colleagues from Brown, Boston, and Stanford Universities recently published a paper in Obstetrics and Gynecology reviewing maternal health and mortality reporting from 2004 to 2014. They found that, despite global trends in the opposite direction, maternal mortality in most of the United States increased during the first 14 years of the new millennium. In 2014, nearly 24 women per 100,000 died during or within 42 days of pregnancy, up from nearly 19 per 100,000 in 2000.
In addition, maternal mortality in Texas doubled between 2010 and 2014, when compared with rates between 2000 and 2010. There is speculation that laws against access to women's reproductive health services may have contributed to the rise. On this speculation of cause for trends in Texas, Dr MacDorman notes:
"It's certainly a theory, and I don't have a lot of other theories at the moment."
See the story reported by The Guardian
See the article abstract in O&G (full article requires access or payment)