Georgia health officials laid out efforts on Tuesday to stem the tide of increasing deaths among new mothers in the state as evidence shows that the rate of death from pregnancy has risen more steeply in Georgia than in almost any other state.
A study published last week by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and the Boston-based Mass General Brigham health system found that death rates more than doubled in Georgia for white, Black, Hispanic, and Asian women between 1999 and 2019. Those numbers place Georgia among the five worst states in the nation.
State officials highlighted efforts to treat bleeding, high blood pressure, heart problems, and mental health disorders.
Nationally, the mortality rate spiked in 2021 according to recent findings from the CDC, and the numbers are much worse for Black women. Filmmaker Monique Mathews explored the issue in the PBS documentary “Birthing Justice.” She says the United States is considered one of the most dangerous high-income nations in which to give birth.
The CDC states the maternal mortality rate is the highest rate the country has seen since the 1960s.
