Maternal deaths in the U.S. rose in the first year of the pandemic, CDC report says

Maternal¹ deaths in the U.S. rose in the first year of the pandemic, CDC report says

Transcript²

The U.S. maternal mortality rates jumped in 2020 with the biggest increases seen in Black and Hispanic women. The death rate for Black women was almost three times higher than for white women.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

But now we turn to a grim new report by the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics. The number of pregnant women and new mothers who died due to pregnancy-related causes jumped in 2020 compared to the year before. To tell us more about that data, we're joined by NPR health correspondent Rhitu Chatterjee. Rhitu, good morning.

RHITU CHATTERJEE, BYLINE³: Good morning.

MARTIN: This is all bad news. Maternal deaths, as we know, though, in the U.S. have been rising for many years. How do we interpret this new data? Is this just a continuation of that trend?

CHATTERJEE: So, yes, maternal deaths in the U.S. have been rising for a while. In fact, they've almost doubled in the past 30 years. But in 2020, they rose by nearly 20% compared to the year before, and that was a little higher than the rise in 2019. And the biggest jump was seen in Black women, which widened an already big disparity between Black and white women and Hispanic women, too, experienced a bigger jump in maternal deaths compared with white women who, by the way, did not see a significant rise.

MARTIN: Why? Why do women of color suffer most in this?

CHATTERJEE: So the report doesn't tell us the causes of death. It doesn't give us any insight into the potential reasons for the sharp rise. But the president and CEO of the nonprofit March of Dimes⁴, Stacey Stewart, told me that the pandemic probably played a role, partly due to COVID itself.

STACEY STEWART: We know that unvaccinated pregnant women are at far greater risk of severe illness and hospitalization and even death if they contract COVID.

CHATTERJEE: And remember, Rachel, that very few, if any, pregnant women were vaccinated⁵ in 2020. And Stewart says Black and Hispanic women were likely hit harder for all the same reasons these communities saw higher infections and deaths overall.

STEWART: Women of color and people of color generally being more likely to be essential workers, more likely having to work outside the house, around others, not being able to socially distance themselves and all of that.

CHATTERJEE: And they're more likely to live in multigenerational households. And they've also been hit harder by the economic impacts of the pandemic, and we know that socioeconomic factors play a big role in high maternal mortality.

MARTIN: And also limited access to health care, right?

CHATTERJEE: Yeah, that's a big part of it, and I should add that access to good care was already a problem in these communities. And in 2020, it just got worse because people had fewer in-person appointments.

MARTIN: So how do you begin to wrap your arms around fixing this problem if you're policymakers or at the CDC working on this?

CHATTERJEE: So I put that question to Dr. Catherine Spong. She heads the OB-GYN Department at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. She said when thinking of solutions - and there are many - we need to keep this in mind.

CATHERINE SPONG: Somewhere around 70% of pregnancy-related deaths occur after delivery.

CHATTERJEE: And a lot of women lose access to health care in the postpartum period because Medicaid, which pays for over 40% of deliveries in the U.S., doesn't cover postpartum care. So one important solution is to expand Medicaid coverage⁶ to make sure postpartum period is covered.

MARTIN: NPR's Rhitu Chatterjee, thanks.

CHATTERJEE: Thank you, Rachel.

1 maternal   

adj.母亲的，母亲般的，母系的，母方的

参考例句：

• He is my maternal uncle.他是我舅舅。
• The sight of the hopeless little boy aroused her maternal instincts.那个绝望的小男孩的模样唤起了她的母性。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 dimes   

n.（美国、加拿大的）10分铸币( dime的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Pennies, nickles, dimes and quarters are United States coins. 1分铜币、5分镍币、1角银币和2角5分银币是美国硬币。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• In 1965 the mint stopped putting silver in dimes. 1965年，铸币厂停止向10分硬币中加入银的成分。 来自辞典例句

5 vaccinated   

[医]已接种的，种痘的，接种过疫菌的

参考例句：

• I was vaccinated against tetanus. 我接种了破伤风疫苗。
• Were you vaccinated against smallpox as a child? 你小时候打过天花疫苗吗？

6 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。