CDC report: US maternal mortality rate higher in 2020

Editor's Note

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on February 23 released the “Maternal Mortality Rates in the United States” report for 2020, after analyzing data from the National Vital Statistics System and calculating mortality rates as the number of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births.

The report found that the maternal mortality rate in the US increased to 23.8 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2020, up from 20.1 in 2019 and 17.4 in 2018. In 2020, 861 women died of pregnancy-related causes in the country, compared to 754 in 2019 and 658 in 2018.

According to the report, “rates for non-Hispanic Black women were significantly higher than rates for non-Hispanic White and Hispanic women. The increases from 2019 to 2020 for non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic women were significant.”

The mortality rate for Black women not only increased in 2020 from previous years (44.0 in 2019 and 37.3 in 2018), but it was nearly 3 times higher than the mortality rate for White women, at 55.3 deaths for Black women compared to 19.1 for White women. The mortality rate for Hispanic woman also increased, at 18.2 (up from 12.6 in 2019 and 11.8 in 2018).

Mortality rates increased along with maternal age, with the rate for women aged 40 and over (at 107.9 per 100,000 live births) nearly 8 times higher than the rate for women under 25 (13.8) and almost 5 times higher than the rate for women aged 25–39 (22.8).

Differences in rates between age groups were statistically significant as were increases in rates between 2019 and 2020 for women aged 25–39 and 40 and over, the report concluded.

Maternal deaths were classified as having occurred “from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management, but not from accidental or incidental causes.”