Experts sound alarm on dangers of U.S. maternity care shortage: ABC News

NEW YORK, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Over a third of all U.S. counties are what's known as maternity care deserts, which translates to more than 2.2 million women of childbearing age and 146,000 babies born in areas without obstetric providers, hospitals or birth centers offering obstetric care, ABC News reported on Monday, citing a recent March of Dimes report.

It's an issue that's contributing to the high U.S. maternal death rate, March of Dimes chief medical officer Dr. Elizabeth Cherot was quoted as saying.

In 2021, there was a 40 percent increase in the death rate from maternal causes compared to the year before, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). After a spike during the pandemic, preliminary data suggests the number of maternal deaths began dropping in 2022, but numbers are still higher than experts would advise.

One of the states with the highest number of maternal deaths, according to the CDC, is Mississippi, where there are no obstetric providers in more than 50 of its counties, noted the ABC News report.

According to the CDC, the maternal mortality rate for Black women is three times higher than non-Hispanic white women, although all ethnicities saw an increase in 2021. For women over the age of 40, the mortality rate is seven times higher than for women under the age of 25.