U.S. urged to tackle shocking maternal mortality rate

By Karen Mullins

NEW YORK – Amnesty International called on U.S. President Barack Obama to tackle soaring rates of maternal mortality and pregnancy-related complications that particularly affect minorities and those living in poverty.

Amnesty International’s report Deadly Delivery: The Maternal Health Care Crisis in the USA, urges action to tackle a crisis that sees between two and three women die every day during pregnancy and childbirth in the U.S.

A total of 1.7 million women a year, one-third of all pregnant women in the country, suffer from pregnancy-related complications.

The report also revealed that severe pregnancy-related complications that nearly cause death — known as “near misses” — are rising at an alarming rate, increasing by 25 percent since 1998.

Minorities, those living in poverty, Native American and immigrant women and those who speak little or no English are particularly affected.
The United States lifetime risk of maternal death is higher than 40 other nations, including most of the industrialized world.

A key concern is the lack of prenatal care. Women who do not receive proper prenatal care are three to four times more likely to die than women who do, the organization said.

With nearly 13 million women of reproductive age without health insurance pregnant women in the United States face hurdles to get prenatal care. State run insurance is difficult for all but the extremely poor to obtain.

One in four women do not have proper prenatal care from the beginning of their pregnancy. That number rises in the African American and Native American communities to one in three.

There is a shortage of health care professionals in many rural areas and inner cities. In 2008 64 million people were living in primary care shortage areas.

Often women are not given a say in decisions about their care and the risks of inducing labour or cesarean sections. Nearly one third of all births in the United States are by C-section. This is twice as high the number recommended by the World Health Organization.

“This country’s extraordinary record of medical advancement makes its haphazard approach to maternal care all the more scandalous and disgraceful,” said Larry Cox, Amnesty’s U.S. director.

“Mothers die not because the United States can’t provide good care, but because it lacks the political will to make sure good care is available to all women,” he said.

The report found many systemic failures. One of which is the fact that the number of deaths is significantly understated.

In the United States there are no federal requirements to report maternal deaths or complications. In the District of Columbia and 29 states there is no maternal death review process at all according to Amnesty International.

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Posted by Karen J. Mullins on Mar 13 2010. Filed under Humanity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry