Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) — The death rate of pregnant women and those who have recently given birth in the United States increased by nearly 30% between 2019 and 2020, according to a new study.
The study, published in JAMA Network Open on Friday, analyzed information on 4,535 deaths collected by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics between 2019 and 2020.
The researchers looked at deaths among women who were pregnant or who had recently given birth, up to a year after giving birth.
The researchers found that the death rate for women from any cause increased from 54 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2019 to 70 deaths in 2020. Death rates from pregnancy-related causes increased by 22% and from non-pregnancy-related causes by 36%.
The researchers noted that causes not related to pregnancy accounted for more than half of all women’s deaths in 2020.
Accidental drug poisoning was the most common, followed by car accidents and homicide, with death rates from these causes, respectively, 12.2%, 5.9%, and 5.5%. The death rate involving suicide did not change significantly.
The study authors also identified significant racial and ethnic disparities.
Mortality rates were three to five times higher among American Indian women, or Alaska Native women, from any cause other than suicide.
Black women had similarly high all-cause mortality rates, with a 5.3 times higher risk of dying from homicide.
“One of the key messages from the study is that there is, in fact, a much larger social problem that pregnant women and new mothers face during the postpartum period, which is known as a stage of life,” said Jeffrey Howard, study author and assistant professor of public health at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Very stressful.”
“What the study indicates is that this population has a particular vulnerability to some of these other social factors,” he added.
The research is consistent with increased mortality rates among pregnant and postpartum women, but this trend has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, Howard said.
The pregnancy-related death rate increased by 4.4% annually between 2015 and 2019, compared to 29% between 2019 and 2020.
What is surprising to Howard is the number of non-pregnancy deaths.
“If we go back to 2015, most deaths in this population are 60% pregnancy-related and 40% other-related. By 2020, it kind of reverses, with the majority of deaths from other causes, not pregnancy-related,” Howard explained. .
He pointed out that the results can be attributed, for the most part, to the pressures caused by the pandemic.
Rebecca Lawn, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health who was not involved in the study, agrees, saying the findings “really highlight factors in the traditionally unthinkable discussion about maternal mortality.”
And measures put in place to keep people safe from COVID-19, such as staying at home, can actually exacerbate women’s experiences with intimate partner violence, according to Lawn.
Lawn noted that pregnancy is the time when intimate partner violence begins or increases in intensity. Along with having access to firearms, it is one of the most common risk factors for killing women during pregnancy or after childbirth.
However, if a pregnant woman has access to health care, there are more opportunities to help and protect her, in terms of screening for intimate partner violence or education about intimate partner violence, so access to care is an important component, according to Lawn.
Experts said addressing drug use during and after pregnancy is also critical, as opioid overdose deaths among pregnant and postpartum women have increased in recent years, reflecting trends in the general population.
With regard to racial and ethnic disparities, experts say these findings align with research showing that Native American and black women are at increased risk of pregnancy-related death, and that these structural issues need to be addressed.
“Study after study, we’ve seen how discrimination and systemic racism play a role at multiple levels within our healthcare system, as well as in societies in general, preventing women from accessing quality care,” said Dr. Camilla Alexander, associate professor at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. A respectable”.
Research has shown that 4 out of 5 pregnancy-related deaths are preventable, but experts say systemic changes are necessary.
“The year after childbirth is a critical time period, during which women are still at risk for a number of pregnancy-related causes of death, and yet, most of the time, They are cut off from the health care system.
She added, “It is important for the community and the family to provide support, and to understand the problems that women face after childbirth and their exposure to the risk of death.”
