maternal deaths

A decade after a landmark report on Americans' shorter lives, the problem has only gotten worse. Unlike other wealthy nations, U.S. life expectancy has not bounced back from the pandemic.

The decrease comes after a year when the maternal death rate was the highest in nearly six decades: more than 1,200 U.S. women died in 2021 during pregnancy or shortly after childbirth.

After years of high rates, the country hit a new high during the pandemic, far exceeding rates in other developed nations. Black women are at especially high risk.

Florida is one of the least generous states when it comes to public health insurance. About 1 in 6 women of childbearing age here are uninsured, reducing their access to quality prenatal care and making it more difficult to begin a healthy pregnancy.

That's what epidemiologist Jenny Cresswell of the World Health Organization said of death rate data in a new report she authored — "equivalent to almost 800 deaths a day or a death every 2 minutes."

The nation has the highest rate of maternal mortality among wealthy countries. A long-standing program, Nurse-Family Partnership, which supports new parents, works to address this deadly trend.

Black and Native American women die of pregnancy-related causes at a higher rate than white women. Researchers say the gaps are driven by unequal access to health care and the experience of racism.

American women are more likely to die from preventable childbirth complications than women in other developed countries. A group of obstetricians says hospitals can do a lot to change this.