The risk of death during childbirth may be small, but recently released government figures show that the number of women dying while giving birth is the highest it's been in decades.
In 2003, the maternal mortality rate was 12 per every 100,000 -- which was already higher than it'd been since 1977. The new statistics now reveal that, in 2004, that rate rose again to 13 per 100,000.
The good news is that we've made dramatic gains in the last century -- as only 90 years ago 1 in every 100 women died giving birth. Plus, it's possible that the rise is superficial -- perhaps due to the a change in the way California, Montana and Idaho label a person's cause of death, or other factors that aren't technically health-related.
On the other hand, some doctors suggest that the higher number of C-section (which pose a variety of risks), along with older mothers and rising obesity rates, may all factor in to the increase.
Whatever the cause, any rise in these figures seems worrying, and worth keeping an eye on.
Revolution Health has a new interactive tool, momScore, that ranks states based on the accessibility and quality of maternal health care. To determine the score, a team of health experts compared state-to-state criteria including:
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