According to a report issued on Wednesday, COVID-19 was responsible for a sharp rise in the number of women who died in the United States last year due to pregnancy-related or childbirth-related issues.
The research outlines depressing national patterns for expecting moms and their newborn children.
It concludes that the number of deaths connected to pregnancy has increased by over 80% during 2018, with COVID-19 being a contributing factor in 25% of the 1,178 deaths reported in 2018.
After being stable for years, the percentage of preterm and low birth weight babies increased in 2017. And more women who are expecting or just gave birth are reporting depressive symptoms.
Researcher on maternal health at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Karen Tabb Dina stated, “We were already in the midst of a crisis with maternal mortality in our country.” “This clearly demonstrates that COVID-19 has accelerated the crisis to a level that our nation cannot manage.”
The report’s nonpartisan author, the U.S. Government Accountability Office, examined maternal health outcomes after Congress required it to do so in the 2020 coronavirus relief bill.
The maternal mortality rate in the United States is greater than in many other industrialized countries and had been rising in the years prior to the pandemic, but COVID-19 has only made things worse for expectant mothers in our country.
According to a different GAO investigation, Black, low-income, and rural women received inadequate prenatal care even before COVID-19 started spreading, increasing their risk for unplanned pregnancies.
According to that report, hospitals in rural, low-income, and predominately Black regions have been cutting back on their obstetric services.
According to the analysis, there were more than half of rural counties without a hospital that provided maternity care as of 2018.
In rural areas, the survey found, “the loss of hospital-based obstetric services is related with increases in out-of-hospital births and pre-term births, which may lead to poor mother and infant outcomes.”
