The United States continues to have the highest rate of maternal deaths among wealthy nations despite a dip in the rate at the tail end of the COVID-19 pandemic. A from The Commonwealth Fund compared the U.S.
’s maternal mortality rate of about 22 deaths per 100,000 live births to those of other high-income nations in Europe, Asia, South America and Oceania. The analysis found that the U.S.
’s current rate, which was calculated using 2022 data, was still far higher than those in other similarly well-off countries. Nordic countries and Switzerland had the lowest maternal mortality rates out of the 17 countries included in the report, with Norway reporting zero maternal deaths in 2022. In the U.
S., Black women are at the highest risk of dying from maternal causes, with a maternal mortality rate of more than twice the national average, the report shows. More than 60 percent of maternal deaths occur after delivery, with two out of three of those deaths taking place in the postpartum period, which starts a day after delivery and ends a year after giving birth.
Severe bleeding, high blood pressure and infection are the most common causes of maternal deaths during the first week of the postpartum period, the report notes, while heart muscle disease is the leading cause of death in the following postpartum weeks and months. Most of these deaths — nearly 80 percent — are preventable, according to the . “While the number of maternal deaths is lower in 2022 than in earlier years.