MacDorman on missing mortality rates
Samantha Page writing for Cosmos reports on the many women in the US and Africa that are currently dying from preventable pregnancy complications. In the US, women are more likely to die in childbirth or from postpartum complications than their counterparts in other still-developing countries. On the other side, women in Africa are dying from caesarean sections that are approximately 50 times higher than in developed nations. One identified issue has been the lack of reliable data in the US about maternal deaths. Faculty Associate Marian MacDorman responds to medical writer Anita Slomski reports on the lack of reliable data in the US; “The effort [to reduce deaths] in the US was almost nonexistent, partly because we had no idea what our rates of maternal mortality are”.
Additionally, a 2018 study found racial and socioeconomic discrepancies in the reported maternal mortality rates. Health care practitioners are often less responsive to black women. In addition, medical services are sometimes expensive to access. Thus, many women in the US have limited prenatal care and childbirth coverage expire after six weeks, which is not sufficient time to identify possible postpartum complications.