An American study suggests that maternal mortality in hospitals in the USA is higher before or after childbirth, that is to say during pregnancy or the postpartum period.
- For the period 2013-2015, 262 maternal deaths were identified, ie 1 death every 4 days in France from a cause related to pregnancy, childbirth or their consequences.
- In the United States, 861 women died in 2020 during pregnancy or within forty-two days of pregnancy. A rate almost three times higher for black women than for white women.
In the United States, hospitalizations that occur during the antenatal period (during pregnancy, but before delivery) and those that occur during the postpartum period (after delivery) account for more than half of maternal deaths in the United States. hospital between 2017 and 2019, according to a new study.
The results, published in the medical journal JAMA Network Openassessed maternal in-hospital death rates from a sample of patients hospitalized during different time periods—prenatal, childbirth, and postpartum—in the United States from 1994 to 2015 and from 2017 to 2019 .
10% of hospitalizations for 50% of deaths
The researchers first found that during the period between 1994-1995 and 2014-2015, maternal deaths in hospital at the time of childbirth fell by more than half (56%). During these twenty years, the rates of maternal deaths in hospital occurring during the prenatal and postpartum periods have remained unchanged.
Then, looking at the most recent data, from 2017 to 2019, the research team found that hospitalizations for childbirth accounted for almost 90% of hospitalizations occurring during pregnancy – but only half of maternal deaths in hospital. . The other half of these deaths are due to prenatal and postpartum hospitalizations, which nevertheless represent less than 10% of all hospitalizations occurring during pregnancy.
A higher maternal mortality rate in the United States
“Maternal mortality rates are high in the United States, higher than in any other industrialized country“, said Lindsay Kennedy Admonco-author of the study, in a communicated. The researcher points out that “progress has been made in reducing the maternal mortality rate at the time of childbirth. But maternal mortality continues to rise. To further reduce these rates, we need to focus not only on the timing of childbirth, but also examine the risks and complications occurring during the prenatal periods and postpartum hospitalizations.”.
