Counseling You Through Life's Difficult Times
  1. Home
  2.  » 
  3. Medical Malpractice
  4.  » US maternal mortality rate unacceptable

US maternal mortality rate unacceptable

Living in a developed country should allow pregnant and new mothers in Maryland to feel secure about their health care and the care their babies receive when in the womb and after birth. Unfortunately, the United States has been experiencing an increase in the number of women dying during pregnancy, childbirth and in the first year after giving birth. For a while now, health care professionals have been blaming the mothers themselves for this problem. A new report sheds some new light on the matter, however.

As reported by USA Today, approximately 700 women die every year in the United States from pregnancy- and childbirth-related complications. Those deaths were split relatively evenly between deaths during pregnancy, deaths during labor and delivery, and deaths that took place up to 12 months after delivery. More than 50,000 women experience some form of serious complication during these times.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have recently come out stating that as many as three out of every five maternal deaths in the country are, or should be, preventable. Prevention can come in the form of improved access to care, especially for women of certain heritages, like African American or American Indian women.

Other problems identified include a lack of medical staff’s ability to properly identify warning signs. This is a potential contributor to delayed diagnoses. Missed diagnoses have also been named as a root problem for the high maternal mortality rate. Excessive bleeding and the leaking of amniotic fluid into the mother’s bloodstream are two common problems mothers experience during delivery.

 

FindLaw Network