New CDC Report Says Maternal Mortality Rates on the Rise

Experts worry the problem is getting worse.

The U.S. maternal death rate rose sharply in 2021, and experts worry the problem is getting worse. New data from the CDC released earlier this week shows the number of women who died of maternal causes rose to more than twelve-hundred people in 2021. It’s an increase from years earlier, which were 658 deaths in 2018, 754 deaths in 2019, and 861 in 2020. The new data also notes significant racial disparities. The rates among black women were more than twice as high as those of white women.