<story><title>US has the highest rate of maternal deaths among rich nations. Norway has zero</title><url>https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/04/health/maternal-deaths-high-income-nations/index.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tyoma</author><text>Kind of relevant: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.noahpinion.blog&amp;#x2F;p&amp;#x2F;how-many-of-our-facts-about-society&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.noahpinion.blog&amp;#x2F;p&amp;#x2F;how-many-of-our-facts-about-so...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; In 2021, Joseph et al. published a paper in Obstetrics &amp;amp; Gynecology demonstrating that the entire recorded increase in maternal mortality since 2003 was due to a change in the way data was gathered. In 2003, U.S. states began to include pregnancy checkboxes on death certificates. This led to a whole lot more women who died while pregnant being identified as such. The apparent steady increase in maternal mortality was due to the fact that states adopted this new checkbox at different times:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; In fact, when the authors looked at the common causes of death from pregnancy, they found that these had all declined since 2000, implying that U.S. maternal mortality has actually been falling. Meanwhile, a CDC report in 2020 had found the same thing as Joseph et al. (2021) — maternal mortality rose only in states that added the checkbox to death certificates.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>omnicognate</author><text>The CNN article is about this [1] study, which is based on OECD 2023 maternal mortality data. OECD says here [2] about &amp;quot;Definition and Comparability&amp;quot;:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Maternal mortality is defined as the death of a woman while pregnant or during childbirth or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management but not from unintentional or incidental causes. This includes direct deaths from obstetric complications of pregnancy, interventions, omissions or incorrect treatment. It also includes indirect deaths due to previously existing diseases, or diseases that developed during pregnancy, where these were aggravated by the effects of pregnancy.&lt;p&gt;Edit: [1] Also references [3], a 2022 CDC report saying over 80% of pregnancy-related deaths were determined to be preventable.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.commonwealthfund.org&amp;#x2F;publications&amp;#x2F;issue-briefs&amp;#x2F;2024&amp;#x2F;jun&amp;#x2F;insights-us-maternal-mortality-crisis-international-comparison&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.commonwealthfund.org&amp;#x2F;publications&amp;#x2F;issue-briefs&amp;#x2F;2...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.oecd-ilibrary.org&amp;#x2F;sites&amp;#x2F;1ea5684a-en&amp;#x2F;index.html?itemId=&amp;#x2F;content&amp;#x2F;component&amp;#x2F;1ea5684a-en&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.oecd-ilibrary.org&amp;#x2F;sites&amp;#x2F;1ea5684a-en&amp;#x2F;index.html?i...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[3] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cdc.gov&amp;#x2F;maternal-mortality&amp;#x2F;php&amp;#x2F;data-research&amp;#x2F;?CDC_AAref_Val=https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cdc.gov&amp;#x2F;reproductivehealth&amp;#x2F;maternal-mortality&amp;#x2F;erase-mm&amp;#x2F;data-mmrc.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cdc.gov&amp;#x2F;maternal-mortality&amp;#x2F;php&amp;#x2F;data-research&amp;#x2F;?CD...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>US has the highest rate of maternal deaths among rich nations. Norway has zero</title><url>https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/04/health/maternal-deaths-high-income-nations/index.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tyoma</author><text>Kind of relevant: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.noahpinion.blog&amp;#x2F;p&amp;#x2F;how-many-of-our-facts-about-society&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.noahpinion.blog&amp;#x2F;p&amp;#x2F;how-many-of-our-facts-about-so...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; In 2021, Joseph et al. published a paper in Obstetrics &amp;amp; Gynecology demonstrating that the entire recorded increase in maternal mortality since 2003 was due to a change in the way data was gathered. In 2003, U.S. states began to include pregnancy checkboxes on death certificates. This led to a whole lot more women who died while pregnant being identified as such. The apparent steady increase in maternal mortality was due to the fact that states adopted this new checkbox at different times:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; In fact, when the authors looked at the common causes of death from pregnancy, they found that these had all declined since 2000, implying that U.S. maternal mortality has actually been falling. Meanwhile, a CDC report in 2020 had found the same thing as Joseph et al. (2021) — maternal mortality rose only in states that added the checkbox to death certificates.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>gorbachev</author><text>That may be relevant to something, but not to why the difference is so drastic between Norway and US.&lt;p&gt;It is indicative of the US healthcare system, however, that up until 2003 it wasn&amp;#x27;t even known, statistically, that women were actually dieing of childbirth.</text></comment>