Getty Images
Disparities remain as U.S. maternal mortality rate declines
Despite a drop in the overall maternal mortality rate, new CDC data showed continued Black maternal health disparities.
Black people remain three times more likely to die from pregnancy than their white counterparts despite an overall drop in the nation's maternal mortality rates in 2023, according to the latest data from the CDC.
While the maternal mortality rate for white women was 14.5 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2023, the rate was significantly higher for Black women at 50.3 deaths per 100,000 live births, the agency said.
This data uses the World Health Organization's definition of maternal death, stating that maternal death is "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."
These findings come after years of industry discussion about the Black maternal mortality crisis. Although maternal health disparities have long been an issue in American healthcare, maternal health equity has become a talking point in the cultural conversation in the last six or seven years.
Black maternal mortality rates rise while other races fall
Despite that momentum and discourse, maternal health disparities remain, this latest CDC data shows.
As noted above, Black people remain more than three times more likely to die from maternal causes than their white counterparts. Similar trends emerged when comparing Black maternal mortality rates with other races. For example, the maternal mortality rate for Hispanic people was 14.5 deaths per 100,000 live births. For Asian people, it was 10.7 deaths per 100,000 live births.
In other words, there's a wide gulf in maternal mortality rates for Black people compared to white, Hispanic and Asian people.
What's more, the Black maternal mortality rate actually increased from 2022 to 2023, although the CDC said this increase was not statistically significant. In 2022, the Black maternal mortality rate was 49.5 deaths per 100,000 live births, down only slightly from the rate in 2023.
Still, maternal mortality rates actually improved across the other studied racial groups. While Black maternal mortality rates were increasing, albeit slightly, rates shrank for Asian, white and Hispanic people.
For example, the Asian maternal mortality rate went from 13.2 in 2022 to this year's 10.7 deaths per 100,000 live births. Among white people, the rate went from 19 to 14.5 deaths per 100,000 live births and for Hispanic, the decrease was 16.9 to 12.4 deaths per 100,000 live births.
Overall maternal mortality rates improve in the U.S.
Perhaps due to the decrease in maternal mortality rates across white, Hispanic and Asian people, the nation's overall maternal mortality rate went down in 2023.
In 2023, there were 669 deaths of maternal causes in the U.S. compared to 817 in 2022. That adds up to a maternal mortality rate decrease from 22.3 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2022 to 18.6 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2023.
This includes a significant decrease among people ages 15 to 39. In 2023, the maternal mortality rate for people ages 25 to 39 was 18.1 deaths per 100,000 live births compared to 21.1 deaths in 2022.
But that decrease pales in comparison to the drop in maternal mortality for people over age 40. In 2022, the maternal mortality rate for this group was 87.1 deaths per 100,000 live births. In 2023, it was 59.8.
Still, the maternal mortality rate for people over age 40 continues to dwarf that of younger birthing people, CDC stressed.
This latest data from the CDC is a mixed bag of good and bad news. Although maternal health equity remains an uphill battle, the agency showed that the overall maternal mortality rate is declining notably.
Concerted health equity efforts and investment in the social determinants of health contributing to maternal health disparities -- including cultural competence and implicit bias training to mediate race as a key factor -- will be key to achieving equitable maternal health outcomes.
Sara Heath has covered news related to patient engagement and health equity since 2015.
