Premature Births and Maternal Deaths | Episode 034

Episode summary introduction:

About 700 women die each year in the United States as a result of pregnancy or delivery related complications. According to the CDC, A pregnancy-related death is defined “as the death of a woman during pregnancy or within one year of the end of pregnancy from a pregnancy complication, a chain of events initiated by pregnancy, or the aggravation of an unrelated condition by the physiologic effects of pregnancy.”

Topic 1:

Statistics, risk factors from premature births and maternal deaths are discussed.

Topic 2:

Ashley’s story

Topic 3:

Rosa’s story

Previous premature delivery, preeclampsia, and HELLP syndrome with emergency C-section and blood platelet transfusion.

Topic 4:

Disparities

The maternal death rate among black women was 37.1 deaths per 100,000 live births, a rate up to three times the rates for non-Hispanic white and Hispanic women.

Rates are actually climbing and in some cities up to 12% higher mortality

Outro:

According to Dr. Michael Lu, Dean of the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley, believes maternal mortality can be cut in half by 2025, and eradicate maternal deaths in the US by 2050.

References:

Birthing Statistics:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/30/health/maternal-mortality-statistics-cdc-study/index.html

https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/maternalinfanthealth/pregnancy-relatedmortality.htm

https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2016/s1103-prematurity-awareness.html#:~:text=Babies%20who%20survive%20can%20have,can%20do%20to%20prevent%20it.

https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/maternalinfanthealth/pretermbirth.htm

https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/features/premature-birth/index.html

https://www.marchofdimes.org/https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/maternalinfanthealth/pregnancy-relatedmortality.htm

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/11/01/662683176/premature-birth-rates-rise-again-but-a-few-states-are-turning-things-around

https://www.marchofdimes.org/Peristats/ViewSubtopic.aspx?reg=99&top=3&stop=63&lev=1&slev=1&obj=1

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4402979/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2018/11/28/stats-are-against-black-moms-babies-so-why-arent-we-more-worried-about-prematurity/