Race, Ethnicity, and Maternal Morbidity and Mortality

Higher rates of severe morbidity and mortality among Black women reflect environmental and health care disparities rather than the women's individual behavior.

Rates of maternal mortality in the U.S. are higher in minority women (Obstet Gynecol 1985; 65:605) — a disparity often attributed to personal medical and behavioral factors; severe maternal morbidity (SMM) is 100 times more frequent. Three new reports parse the relative contributions of individual maternal risk factors versus social, health system, and environmental factors to racial disparities in the incidence of SMM.

In the first study, investigators used New York City birth data from 2010 to 2014 to assess the role of prepregnancy obesity in the association between race and SMM. The rate of SMM was 342 per 10,000 deliveries in obese women versus 216 per 10,000 in nonobese women and was nearly three times higher in Black women than in whi…

Reviewing Author

Andrew M. Kaunitz, MD

Disclosures

RoyaltiesUpToDate

Grant/Research SupportMerck, Mithra, Medicines360

Editorial BoardsContraception; Menopause; Contraceptive Technology Update; OBG Management; Medscape OB/GYN & Women’s Health

Andrew M. Kaunitz, MD

Disclosures

RoyaltiesUpToDate

Grant/Research SupportMerck, Mithra, Medicines360

Editorial BoardsContraception; Menopause; Contraceptive Technology Update; OBG Management; Medscape OB/GYN & Women’s Health

Race, Ethnicity, and Maternal Morbidity and Mortality

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Reviewing Author