According to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, since 2018, deaths related to pregnancy have increased by 80% and majorly affect Black and Hispanic women.
Working with data from the CDC, the researchers revealed that the chances of pregnancy complications or in major cases, death, are more in pregnant women who caught the virus. It was also revealed that in 2018 and 2019, African-American or Black women had a 2.5 times greater maternal death rate compared to White women.
Just last year, Covid was one of the reasons for 1,178 maternal deaths. Low-birthweight (9.0%) and preterm (12.2%) babies also rose in percentage for mothers who had the virus (vs 7.9% and 9.9% respectively, for those who did not have Covid).
According to the report, estimated depression symptom rates were on the rise from 2016 to 2019 and continued to rise in 2020 as well when the pandemic hit. In terms of death rates, the average number of maternal deaths per month in 2018 was 55, which increased to 63 the following year, before Covid-19 hit in 2020.
Karen Tabb Dina, a maternal health researcher at the University of Illinois said, “Pregnancy is a period of mental risk more so than nonpregnant times in a person’s life. To experience mental health problems such as depression, suicide ideation, anxiety, panic—these happen disproportionately to pregnant people. And now we have COVID-19 to add to our mortality pregnancy crisis. … And you won’t see that ending anytime soon because we are still living this collective trauma as a society. We’re still in COVID-19. We haven’t completely let up in terms of our restrictions.”
The report revealed maternal death statistics as well. Between January 2020 and December 2021, the average number of maternal deaths per month was 85, whereas August and September of 2021 had considerably higher numbers of 155 and 173 respectively. The CDC mentioned that the death risk for pregnant women increased by over 200% during the time of the delta variant in the nation, which was from July to the end of December 2021.
The report also mentioned that social factors of health also played a part in the rise of pregnancy-related deaths in the country. Exposure to pollution, lack of health insurance, lower education, and lack of access to care were quoted as the social factors. Carolyn Yocom, GAO director noted that the imbalances were notably rising prior to the introduction of Covid-19, which means that catering to the gaps in healthcare is very important to reduce the death rate.
The report states that racism is a factor that plays a part in the deterioration of maternal health. An example mentioned in the report is that the chronic stress that comes with racism can make way for psychological variations and unfavorable health conditions.
If there is discrimination inside the healthcare system, it can discourage the patients to communicate with the healthcare workers. The report shares an example that pregnant women will not be willing to ask questions from the healthcare worker if she faces discrimination at the hands of the worker.
