Four things hospitals can adapt to reduce Maternal Mortality

The USA has the highest maternal mortality rates in all the developed countries around the world. Black women are 3 to 4 times more likely to succumb to pregnancy or childbirth-related causes of deaths as compared to their white counterparts.

The Center for Disease Control identifies three significant potentially preventable complications of pregnancy and labor that contribute a lion share to rising the maternal deaths. The causes include postpartum hemorrhage, severe hypertension, and venous thromboembolism.

Drs. Hollier & Brown, co-authors of a new perspective published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), identifies 4 actions that can be quickly adopted by all hospitals and healthcare providers to address the preventable causes of maternal deaths.

This picture by NEJM enumerates the four causes.

Abstract 

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CDC: Meeting the Challenges of Measuring and Preventing Maternal Mortality in the United States

Women in the United States are more likely to die from childbirth or pregnancy-related causes than other women in high-income countries. More evidence is needed to understand the actual causes of death better, but research suggests that half of these deaths may be preventable. Racial disparities persist. The risk of pregnancy-related deaths for black women is three to four times higher than those of white women.

Watch this session of Grand Rounds to learn about efforts to analyze and prevent future deaths. Hear our speakers discuss the effects maternal deaths have on the family and on the community. You will also learn about how CDC has collaborated and intervened through public-private partnership efforts to prevent deaths associated with childbirth and pregnancy.

About CDC Public Health Grand Rounds

CDC Public Health Grand Rounds is a monthly scientific presentation featuring the important work that CDC is doing in the United States and around the world to protect people and save lives.  Experts discuss major public health issues, key challenges, cutting-edge scientific evidence, potential solutions, and recent developments. Each session is the result of a rigorous process which takes months to prepare. This attention to detail ensures that our audiences receive up-to-date, scientifically accurate, and usable information. Grand Rounds welcomes clinicians, researchers, students of public health, medicine and nursing, and the public that we serve to attend in person or watch the live webcast.