CLEVELAND, Ohio — The maternal death rate continues to rise in the United States.
Recent data released by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) showed a startling spike of nearly 40 percent.
In 2021 1,205 women died of maternal causes, compared to 861 in 2020 and 754 in 2019. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines a maternal death as “the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and the site of the pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management, but not from accidental or incidental causes”
"It looks like we're heading in the wrong direction," said Dr. Tosin Goje.
Goje is the medical director for the Cleveland Clinic Center for Infant and Maternal Health.
She said there are a number of factors behind the increase, including a rise in chronic illnesses and women waiting until they're older to start a family.
"Women at age 40 and above were 6.8 times more likely to have a pregnancy related death compared to women younger than age 25," Goje said. "With age you also see an increase in chronic diseases like diabetes, obesity, hypertension and these have been found to actually impact health outcomes."
But she said COVID played a significant role as well.
"Some pregnant women were not seeking medical care, they were not attending their routine prenatal care, when they had decreased fetal movements they were concerned about contracting COVID and did not go in to be checked," Goje said.
The data also shows that lack women are disproportionately affected, nearly three times more likely to die from a pregnancy related cause than white women.
"I'm more likely to die giving childbirth than a woman was in 1965, so with all the technology, with all the advances, its done Black women worse which is crazy," said Da'na Langford.
Langford is the CEO, medical director and certified nurse practitioner at Village of Healing Center in Euclid.
The clinic is dedicated to combating racial disparities in maternal and infant health.
"We opened our doors for the safety of Black women," Langford said. "Data was also starting to come out to say that if your provider looks like you your disparities decrease, your outcomes are better, your satisfaction is better and you have the feeling of giving informed consent."
Langford said this data reflects systemic racism that's still present in healthcare. According to the Ohio Equity Institute's annual report, the infant mortality rate in Cuyahoga County is 14.6 per 1,000 for Black infants compared to 3.2 per 1,000 for white infants.
"I get that in my social circles, along with my patients that are saying I'm terrified and I don’t want to do this," Langford said.
Goje said food insecurities, housing instabilities and socioeconomic status play a role in the statistics as well.
"Excellent healthcare in the hospital is not enough, because about 80% of a person's health outcome is determined by other things surrounding their social vulnerabilities," Goje said.