Deaths From Pregnancy and Childbirth: Why Are More U.S. Mothers Dying and What Can Be Done?

Summary

THE DR. LAWRENCE H. AND ROBERTA COHN FORUMS

DEATHS FROM PREGNANCY AND CHILDBIRTH: Why Are More U.S. Mothers Dying and What Can Be Done?
Presented jointly with PRI’s The World & WGBH

Live webcast will be on March 4, 2019
Noon-1pm ET

An on-demand video will be posted after the event.

Maternal mortality dropped by almost half over the last 25 years around the world. However, in startling contrast, deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth doubled in the United States between 2000 and 2014, putting the nation second-to-last in maternal mortality among countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Further, pernicious racial disparities mean that black women in the United States face a deeply distressing three- to four-times higher risk of pregnancy-related deaths. What factors are driving these increases and disparities? What changes will narrow the survival gap between white and black women? How can health care systems more effectively prevent complications and poor outcomes? And how can mothers themselves and their communities be agents for change for a more equitable and safe delivery of the next generation?

Part of: Policy Controversies, The Dr. Lawrence H. and Roberta Cohn Forums.

Presented jointly with PRI's The World & WGBH

Background Articles

• Lost Mothers
  ProPublica and NPR
• Women and Health Initiative
  Harvard Chan School
• America Is Failing Its Black Mothers
  https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/magazine/magazine_article/america-is-failing-its-black-mothers/