Childbirth in Ohio and throughout the United States is wonderful when everything goes smoothly, but when it results in death, it’s extremely devastating for all parties involved. An investigation conducted by USA Today in 2019 concluded that the United States of America is one of the most dangerous places in the developed world to have a baby. The Washington Post also weighed in on the grim news, noting that, as global maternal mortality rates went down in third world countries like Swaziland and Afghanistan, the maternal mortality rate for women in America was actually growing.
According to data collected in 2015, the mortality rate for women in the United States was 26.4 per 100,000 live births. Every other developed country did better, with numbers like 7.3 in Canada and 4.4 in Sweden. One reason that this data was so shocking for many is because the U.S. doesn’t have a reliable data collection system. This made it easy to hide the reality of what was going on.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Center for Health statistics has not published an official maternal mortality rate for the United States since 2007. Countries that used to have high maternal mortality rates worked hard to lower those numbers while the U.S. made no changes because no one knew exactly what the data was. There is no federal oversight regarding how data was to be collected, so individual states handle their own reporting. Some states have funding to deliver accurate info while other states have no resources at all.
It’s been determined that 60% of the pregnancy-related deaths in this country are actually preventable. Most deaths are caused by conditions like cardiovascular disease, hemorrhaging and infection but even that data was dependent on race. Medical errors and careless treatments often resulted in unnecessary deaths.
People who are looking for help with medical malpractice relating to maternal injury or death may benefit from working with lawyers who have experience dealing with this specific type of medical malpractice. These types of firms have the experience and are up-to-date with the latest statistics and data.