Have you ever heard of the death of a mother while giving birth? In the United States, this is not new. There has been a significant increase in maternal death rate in the region. However, many believe that it is partially due to the methodology used to count the number of deaths. According to a study released a couple of weeks ago, there have been two major trends or news that made it to the headlines across the nations (1) there is a significant increase in pregnancy-related deaths; and (2) the ratio of black mothers is slightly higher.
However, the issue with the numbers being alarmingly high is that it is not the true size of the increase. Marian MacDorman who is a research professor at the University of Maryland and led the new study said in a statement that the actual figure cannot be determined until an accurate and standardized system is developed for data collection. There have been several instances reported for the death of mother giving a mother. “There is a real increase going on. But there’s also this data problem that really makes it very difficult,” he continued.
The reasons due to which mother die during or after pregnancy/labor are different. For instance, expecting mothers experienced labor complication that resulted in the death of the mother. This was because of hemorrhages or spikes in blood pressure. If we compare these reasons to today, it is quite different. Most mother now die because of chronic health conditions such as diabetes, obesity, and more. In the last one or two decades, California has shown a decrease in maternal deaths while Texas death rate of mothers giving birth doubled in the same period.
However, the paper explains that it is difficult to explain the drastic change in numbers due to ‘absence of war, natural disaster, or severe economic upheaval.’
