Maternal mortality rates rise in US, study finds

Maternal mortality rates in 48 US states and the District of Columbia increased by nearly 27% from the year 2000 to 2014, up from 18.8 per 100 000 live births to 23.8, an analysis of state death certificates has found, placing the United States far behind other industrialized nations.1 Only one state, California, saw a decline.

The researchers said the findings indicated that the US had not met the United Nations millennium development goal of reducing maternal mortality rates by 75% by 2015.

They wrote, “Clearly at a time when the World Health Organization reports that 157 of 183 countries studied had decreases in maternal mortality between 2000 and …