The United States' maternal mortality rate is not only higher than all other developed countries, but also increasing. Between 1990 and 2015, the United States' maternal mortality rate increased by 56% from 16.9 to 26.4 deaths per 100,000 live births.
To the right, explore the change in maternal mortality rate for every 1,000 live births in developed countries over time. Hover over lines for more details.
If we break down maternal mortality by race, glaring disparities become clear. Notably, non-Hispanic black women are more than twice as likely to die from pregnancy than Hispanic and non-Hispanic white women.
Mouse over the bar chart on the right for the stats.
Infant mortality is closely related to maternal mortality. The infant mortality per race varies geographically, especially for infants of color. For example, the infant mortality rate for Non-Hispanic Black infants in Wisconsin in 2016 was 14.6 deaths per 100,000 live births, whereas the rate was 6.69 in Washington State. Geographic location is an integral part of how women, especially women, experience pregnancy and what risk they and their infants face of maternal mortality. Use the drop down menu to select a race and see the map change to show how the infant mortality rate for that race varies across states.
On the right, examine variance in infant mortality rates across the United States for specific races. Choose which race to look at in the drop-down menu above.
For black women in America, an inescapable atmosphere of societal and systemic racism can create a kind of toxic physiological stress One of they key arguments used to explain the black-white divide in infant and maternal mortality is that black women in the U.S. endure a sort of harmful physiological stress in their lived experience with racism and/or sexism that leads to conditions that might endanger mother and child. Experts have used allostatic load scores — an algorithmic measurement of stress-associated body chemicals and their cumulative effect on the body’s systems — to demonstrate the health consequences of the cumulative impact of repeated experience with social or economic adversity and discrimination for black people in the United States. Black women have higher allostatic load scores than white women and black men. An study published in The American Journal of Public Health concluded that “persistent racial differences in health "may be felt particularly by black women because of [the] double jeopardy of gender and racial discrimination.”
Mouse over the bar chart on the right for the stats on high allostatic load scores.
Certain conditions that develop during pregnancy have been indicated as potential explanations for the state of African-American maternal and infant mortality. Pre-eclampsia (a pregnancy complication characterized by high blood pressure and signs of damage to another organ system, often the liver and kidneys) and eclampsia (seizures that develop with pre-eclampsia) are 60% more likely for black mothers and also generally more severe.
Mouse over the bar chart on the right for the stats on preeclampsia/eclampsia prevalence.
In addition to conditions resulting from built up physiological stress, racial bias in healthcare may play a role in the maternal and infant mortality's black-white divide. Treatment by medical personnel during labor and pregnancy may also play a role in the disproportionately high infant and maternal mortality rates for black Americans. A survey of women who had delivered babies in U.S. hospitals showed that more than two times as many black women reported poor treatment from hospital staff due to race, ethnicity, cultural background, or language than did white women.
Mouse over the bar chart on the right for the stats on reports of poor treatment by hosptial staff.
Many are eager to blame the education gap or the income gap between black and white Americans for the alarming black-white divide in both infant and maternal mortality. However, it turns out that education, and by logical inference income as well, offer little protection from the increased risk of maternal and infant mortality for blacks. It's shown here that a black woman with an advanced professional degree is still more likely to lose her baby than a white woman with an eighth grade education or less.
Mouse over the bar chart on the right to see the exact infant mortality rates by race and maternal educational attainment.