By Mariam Sunny
March 16 (Reuters) – Maternal mortality rose 40% in 2021 in the United States as the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the health crisis among pregnant women, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed on Thursday (CDC).
The United States has one of the highest rates of pregnancy-related deaths among developed countries. There were more than 1,200 deaths of pregnant women in 2021, compared to 861 in 2020 and 754 in 2019, according to CDC data.
“The number and percentage of maternal death records mentioning COVID-19 were higher in 2021 than in 2020, which (suggests) that COVID-19 likely contributed to the increase in maternal deaths,” said said Donna Hoyert, author of the study at the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.
There were approximately 32.9 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 2021, compared to 23.8 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2020 and 20.1 in 2019.
The mortality rate for black women in the United States was 69.9 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2021, about 3 times higher than that for white and Hispanic women.
United Nations agencies reported last month that almost all regions of the world had seen a spike in maternal mortality rates in 2020. (Report by Mariam Sunny in Bengaluru Edited in Spanish by Juana Casas)