Maternal mortality and morbidity rates across the country have increased steadily over the past 20 years, even as rates in all other developed countries have decreased significantly.
New government data shows that US maternal deaths jumped by 14% during the first years of the pandemic, to 861 in 2020 from 754 in 2019. The rate of maternal deaths for Black women in the US was nearly three times higher than it was for white women over that time frame.