Maternal deaths in US hospitals are declining, study suggests, but birthing complications are rising
The rate of pregnant women dying of delivery-related causes in the hospital appears to have declined significantly – by more than 50% – across the United States in recent years, a new study suggests.
That decline, seen among more than 11 million hospital patients, came over a 14-year period from 2008 through 2021, according to the national study, published Thursday in the medical journal JAMA Network Open. But the decrease represents only in-hospital maternal deaths, not the nation’s overall maternal mortality rate, which has been on the rise.
“Much of the reporting on maternal mortality has focused on the increasing maternal mortality rates. As a result, this has led many people to believe that hospitals may be the main cause of maternal mortality,” study author Dr. Dorothy Fink, director of the Office on Women’s Health at the US Department of Health and Human Services, said in an email.
