maternal mortality

Deadly high blood pressure during pregnancy is on the rise

5:00am September 20, 2024

More pregnant women are being diagnosed with dangerously high blood pressure, which risks the life of the parent and child. Montana is one of the states improving screening and treatment.

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The Republican National Convention Takes Place In Milwaukee Wisconsin

Arkansas’ gov says Medicaid extension for new moms isn’t needed. Advisers disagree

12:18pm September 13, 2024

Arkansas is the only holdout state that has not pursued the Biden administration's offer to extend Medicaid coverage to new moms for a year after they give birth.

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After an alarming spike in 2021, maternal mortality numbers the next year went back down, according to a report released Thursday. CDC Director Mandy Cohen says the rates are still too high.

Health & Safety

The CDC says maternal mortality rates in the U.S. got better, after a pandemic spike

1:54pm May 02, 2024

by Selena Simmons-Duffin

The maternal mortality rate in the U.S. in 2022 – while still high – went back to where it was before deaths surged during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the latest CDC report.

Under Louisiana's abortion ban, doctors face penalties of up to 15 years in prison, $200,000 in fines and loss of their medical license. Dr. Neelima Sukhavasi, a Baton Rouge OB-GYN, says that doctors are scared. Here, Dr. Sukhavasi poses for a portrait in Baton Rouge, La., on Monday, March 18, 2024.

Health & Safety

Standard pregnancy care is now dangerously disrupted in Louisiana, report reveals

5:14pm March 19, 2024

by Rosemary Westwood

A troubling new report from Louisiana shows how the state's abortion ban from 2022 is forcing doctors to delay or withhold medical care in ways that make pregnancy more dangerous.

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The new analysis of death certificates says the U.S. maternal mortality rate is in line with other wealthy countries, contradicting an earlier report from the CDC.

How bad is maternal mortality in the U.S.? A new study says it's been overestimated

5:12pm March 13, 2024

by Selena Simmons-Duffin

The peer-reviewed study in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology says a pregnancy checkbox on national death certificates inflates the death rate.

Kaniya Pierre Louis (left) is a third-year medical student shadowing Dr. Zita Magloire for the day. Pierre Louis says she appreciates Magloire as a role model and an example of excellence.

Health & Safety

Can family doctors deliver rural America from its maternal health crisis?

4:43pm December 18, 2023

by Sarah Jane Tribble

More than half of American counties don't have an obstetrician. Family physicians, working in teams with proper support, could be the answer to the crisis in rural obstetric care.

Kimberley Seals Allers, was inspired to start Irth because of stories she her from many mothers as well as her own experience of bias in the health care system during the delivery of her first child.

Health & Safety

'Irth' hospital review app aims to take the bias out of giving birth

7:14pm October 13, 2023

by Andrea Muraskin

Founded by a Black mom, the app gathers reviews by and for people of color about their experience with the health care system during pregnancy and delivery.

A pregnant woman stands for a portrait in Dallas on May 18. A survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 20% of women reported experiences of mistreatment during maternal care.

Health & Safety

1 in 5 women report mistreatment from medical staff during pregnancy

6:10pm August 22, 2023

by Ayana Archie

The women reported being verbally abused, having their requests for help go unanswered and having their physical privacy infringed upon, according to a CDC survey.

Maternal death rates have been consistently highest among Black women. But they are also rising among other racial groups.

U.S. maternal deaths keep rising. Here's who is most at risk

7:42pm July 04, 2023

The rate at which women in the U.S. are dying from pregnancy related causes more than doubled in recent decades. A new study, published in JAMA shows Black women and Native Americans are most at risk.

Pregnant women at Sierra Leone's Gondama Referral Center. Sierra Leone has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the world. A new study looks at an intervention to prevent death from postpartum hemorrhage.

Health & Safety

A plastic sheet with a pouch could be a 'game changer' for maternal mortality

5:12pm May 10, 2023

by Rhitu Chatterjee

A new study assesses a low-cost intervention aimed at reducing deaths from bleeding during childbirth. It's remarkably simple — and, according to a new study, quite effective.