High Rate of Maternal Deaths in the USA

The USA has one of the highest maternal mortality rates among comparable developed nations. In fact, the figures increased from 18.8 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2000 to 23.8 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2014. While 157 countries out of 183 countries showed reducing maternal death rates for the period between 2000 and 2014, the US reported an increasing trend. Among 31 industrialized nations across the world, the USA has the worst figures with only Mexico having a poorer rate (Boston University Medical Center, 2016). This is a significant concern since the global maternal mortality rate decreased by approximately 38% for the period between 2000 and 2017, even as the rates in the USA continued to increase. Additional reviews of the rates reveal that there are gaping disparities along the racial lines with White mothers reporting significantly lower rates when compared to other minority women. The figures are more dismal for African American mothers with the lowest survival rates thereby showing racial disparities (Heck et al., 2021). The present essay highlights the racial disparities that are blamed for overall high rate of maternal deaths in the USA.

As an indicator of the society’s health, maternal mortality rates have received much attention. While the global rates have been very encouraging in showing a decrease by 38% for the period between 2000 and 2017, the same cannot be said for the USA since the rates are increasing. Ranked as the worst when compared to other developed countries, the USA has gaping disparities between white and minority women. White women have an annual rate of 12.7 deaths per 100,000 live births, but American Indian/Alaska Native women 29.7 deaths per 100,000 live births and non-Hispanic Black women have a rate of 40.8 deaths per 100,000 live births. Based on these figures, it becomes clear that there are significant racial disparities in maternal health within the USA (Heck et al., 2021).  High Rate of Maternal Deaths in the USA Essay Paper

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Given these disparities and the emerging racial patterns, there is a need for interventions to minimalize ethnic and racial contrariety in minimizing maternal deaths in the USA. The issue is brought into sharp focus by the fact that most of these fatalities are preventable by addressing the causes of the disparities. The first significant cause is socioeconomic factors. The reported disparities are caused by health inequality that stems from structural, environmental, economic and social disparities within and among communities. A root cause of the health inequality is the unequal distribution of power and resources to include social attention, facilities and commodities across the dimensions of racial identity thereby giving rise to unequal environmental, economic and social circumstances. On average, White women have a poverty rate of 8.1%, about half of the poverty rate for African Americans at 20.8% (Oribhabor et al., 2020).

The second significant cause is prenatal factors. Receiving early and adequate prenatal care, which includes screening and managing risk factors and health conditions while encouraging healthy behaviors during pregnancy, is important for promoting healthy pregnancies. In fact, having more prenatal visits is associated with better outcomes of pregnancy while fewer prenatal visits are associated with poorer outcomes of pregnancy to include infant mortality, premature birth, low birth weight, severe maternal morbidity and maternal mortality. Prenatal care timing and receipt varies significantly along ethnic and racial lines. Native Hawaiian/other Pacific Island women report the lowest prenatal care at 55%, American Indian/Alaska Native women at 59%, Black women at 64%, Hispanic women at 69%, mixed race women at 71%, Asian women at 78%, and White women at 79%. This state of affairs is caused by a lack of culturally competent care, commuting challenges, insurance availability, and high costs of care (Oribhabor et al., 2020).

The third significant cause is pre-pregnancy care. Optimizing care during the pre-conception period is expected to improve pregnancy outcomes by improving reproductive planning and overall physical health. The high rates of chronic disease, diabetes, hypertension and obesity among racial and ethnic minority women, and the close correlation between these comorbidities and adverse maternal outcomes emphasizes the critical need for preconception care. Among the minority groups, about half of the pregnancies are unintended. These accidental pregnancies are associated with adverse perinatal outcomes (Oribhabor et al., 2020).

The identified causes of the racial disparities associated with the high rate of maternal deaths in the USA call attention to the need for policy interventions as well as targeted care. This includes improving access to critical services such as offering minority women tools to navigate the health care system, eliminating maternity care deserts, screening and treating women at risk, and strengthening the existing health problems while supporting reproductive health care. In addition, there is a need to improve the quality of care provided, to include adopting new models of care and linking payment to quality, creating standardized assessments for women, and training providers to address racism and build a more diverse health care workforce. Besides that, enhancing support for the mothers to include funding community-based education and communication initiatives to support them, investing in home visiting, simplifying enrollment in public benefits programs, invest in programs that offer one-stop comprehensive services, and invest in and expand access to programs and policies that support basic needs (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2020). These measures are expected to address the high rate of maternal deaths in the USA.

References

Boston University Medical Center (2016). US maternal mortality rates higher than reported, study finds. Science Daily. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/08/160810113704.htm

Heck, J. L., Jones, E. J., Bohn, D., McCage, S., Parker, J. G., … & Campbell, J. (2021). Maternal mortality among American Indian/Alaska Native women: a scoping review. Journal of Women’s Health, 30(2). https://doi.org/10.1089/jwh.2020.8890

Oribhabor, G. I., Nelson, M. L., Buchanan-Peart, K-A. R., & Cancarevic, I. (2020). A mother’s cry: a race to eliminate the influence of racial disparities on maternal morbidity and mortality rates among Black women in America. Cureus, 12(7), e9207. https://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.9207

Stanhope, M., & Lancaster, J. (2020). Public health nursing: population-centered health care in the community. Elsevier, Inc.  High Rate of Maternal Deaths in the USA Essay Paper