ASSOCIATED PRESS
A doctor uses a handheld Doppler probe on a pregnant woman to measure the frequency of the fetal center in December 2021, in Jackson, Miss. COVID-19 has led to a dramatic increase in the number of women dying from headaches during pregnancy or childbirth. in the United States last year, a crisis that disproportionately victimized black and Hispanic women, according to a report released today.
WASHINGTON >> COVID-19 led to a dramatic increase in the number of women who died from headaches during pregnancy or childbirth in the United States last year, a crisis that disproportionately victimized black and Hispanic women, according to a government report released today.
The report lays out grim trends across the country for pregnant women and their newborns.
Pregnancy-related deaths are found to have increased nearly 80% since 2018, with COVID-19 being a factor in a quarter of the 1178 deaths reported last year. The percentage of preterm and low birth weight toddlers also increased last year. after remaining solid for years. And more and more pregnant or postpartum women are reporting symptoms of depression.
“We were already in the midst of a maternal mortality crisis in our country,” said Karen Tabb Dina, a maternal fitness researcher at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “It shows that COVID-19 has exacerbated this crisis at a pace that we as a country are not able to handle. “
The partisan EE. UU. no Government Accountability Office, which authored the report, looked at pregnancy-related deaths after Congress asked for maternal fitness results in the 2020 coronavirus relief bill.
The maternal mortality rate in the EE. UU. es higher than in many other developed countries and has increased in the years leading up to the pandemic, but COVID-19 has worsened the situation for pregnant women here.
Women who contract the virus during pregnancy face great fitness risks. Staff shortages and COVID-19 restrictions have created more barriers for moms-to-be to access in-person fitness care; And pandemic stress has intensified depression, a not unusual condition of pregnancy.
It’s very likely that mental fitness problems have contributed to the accumulation of pregnancy-related deaths, Tabb Dina said. Many women with depression and anxiety or after pregnancy have difficulty getting the care they need.
“Mental health is the biggest complication of pregnancy that we don’t understand,” she said.
The spike in deaths occurred from July to December last year, when the delta variant of COVID-19 inflamed millions, said Carolyn Yocom, director of the Government Accountability Office.
“It’s transparent from the knowledge that the timing of the delta variant corresponds to a massive accumulation of deaths,” Yocom said.
The maternal mortality rate is striking for black women, who have long faced worse maternal outcomes than their peers.
Pregnancy-related deaths consisting of 100,000 births rose from 44 in 2019 to 68. 9 among African Americans last year. White women had death rates of 26. 1 last year, a jump from 17. 9 in 2019.
Death rates among Hispanics had declined but increased the pandemic, from 12. 6 consistent with 100,000 in 2019 to 27. 5 last year.
Blacks and Hispanics have also died at higher rates of COVID-19, in part because they have less access to health care and jobs in essential jobs that put them at risk from the virus.
Long before COVID-19 began to spread, the level set for black, low-income and rural women to get below-average pregnancy care, putting them at a greater threat of their pregnancy going wrong, according to a separate GAO report.
Hospitals have abandoned obstetrics in rural, low-income and predominantly black communities, according to the report.
More than a portion of rural counties had a hospital providing care during pregnancy in 2018, according to the review.
“The loss of hospital obstetrics in rural settings is associated with an increase in out-of-hospital deliveries and preterm births, which may contribute to poor maternal and infant outcomes,” the report says.
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