New research is showing that American childbirth related deaths are on the rise:
The United States is one of just eight countries in the world where deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth rose between 2003 and 2013, a new report says. That puts it in the company of countries such as Afghanistan, Belize and El Salvador.
While U.S. maternal mortality rates remain lower than those in many poor countries, they are much higher than those in developed countries ranging from the United Kingdom to Saudi Arabia, says the report, published Friday in the Lancet by researchers at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Hopefully, getting more women
signed up for health coverage will address this
issue somewhat.
According to the World Bank, The US ranks 50th in maternal mortality globally - falling behind every other industrialised nation. A woman in the US is as likely to suffer a maternal death as a woman in sanctions-hit Iran, and four times as likely as a woman in Germany.
"It is a preventable health issue," said Amnesty International's Rachel Ward. "It isn't something that we're waiting for a cure for. We’re waiting for political will."