*Healthy labor and delivery outcomes focus not only on the baby but on birthing people, and those outcomes start at the hospital during and immediately after childbirth.
Most, more than 80%, of pregnancy-related deaths are preventable, “highlighting the need for quality improvement initiatives in states, hospitals, and communities that ensure all people who are pregnant or postpartum get the right care at the right time,” said Wanda Barfield, M.D., M.P.H., director of CDC’s Division of Reproductive Health at the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, in the report.
Northwell Health partnered with Stacker to examine data from the Department of Health and Human Services to see which states have the most significant disparities in length of pregnancy-related hospital stays for Black people.
Pregnant Black people are three times more likely than pregnant white people to die from a pregnancy-related complication, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s a result of underlying inequities, medical experts say.
“Obviously death is the worst possible outcome, but there are a lot of things that happen along that continuum that can really impact women’s lives and have severe consequences in their health for the long term,” said Dr. S. Michelle Ogunwole, assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, who researches racial disparities in health outcomes among Black Americans who are pregnant or have given birth.
Source: Black Mothers Face Higher Risks During Pregnancy and Childbirth, Study Finds
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