All told, about 900 Americans died in 2020 from complications related to childbirth. Another 50,000 or more women experienced severe pregnancy-related complications. Four of five of those deaths were from preventable causes. In terms of scale and rate, America’s maternal mortality dwarfs the issues of other wealthy countries, and these gaps in maternity care shoulder much of the blame.
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Two trends drove the decrease in access to maternity care: A reduction in the number of obstetric providers and hospitals either eliminating these services or closing entirely. The losses are directly the result of the financial incentives — or rather, disincentives — that the US health system has set up for pregnancy-related care, as I wrote earlier this year.
Read more at Vox