Here’s How Dangerous It Is To Give Birth In Virginia, DC

WASHINGTON, DC — The United States is the most dangerous place in the developed world for a woman to give birth with a maternal death rate that has risen sharply between 1990 to 2015 while the rates have dropped in other developed nations, according to an investigation by USA Today.

The investigation looked at two primary categories of data: the maternal death rate and state “harm” rates, which includes complications during or soon after birth.

Virginia has the 23rd highest maternal death rate in the country and the 22nd highest harm rate, the investigation found. The data is based on death rates from 2012-16 and harm rates from Jan. to Sept. 2015. USA Today ranked 47 states for which data was available.

Virginia has a team to review deaths from childbirth complications, but the team does not consistently assess medical care issues, according to USA Today’s findings.

Here’s how USA Today categorized the team assigned to review Virginia’s childbirth deaths:

“Virginia’s maternal death review panel’s most recent report, published in 2015, looked at data from 1999-2007, more than a decade old. The team devotes entire reports to topics such as cancer, drug overdose, heart disease and motor vehicle accidents among the women who died. The reports mention medical care shortcomings only within those contexts. In the heart disease report, the team stresses the need for health care providers 'to screen aggressively and to refer for appropriate management when risk factors (for heart disease) are present'.”

The District of Columbia has the eighth highest maternal death rate in the nation, and the seventh highest harm rate, the newspaper reported. There is no team in place to review deaths, but the district council recently recently approved creating such a panel.

Here are some of USA Today’s key findings:

• Estimates say about half of the U.S.’ 700 maternal deaths could be prevented and half of the 50,000 maternal injuries prevented or reduced with better care
• Hospitals across the country fail to perform basic medical tasks that could be life-saving
• The maternal death rate has fallen in California and the state is considered an exception in the country with its health care practices regarded as the gold standard of care
• Regulators and oversight boards could require hospitals to do more
• Women interviewed by USA Today described feeling “frustrated, angry and powerless” because of practitioners they felt didn’t listen to them or weren’t prepared for emergencies
• It can take long periods of times for best practices to be adopted by health care providers in the U.S.

Read the full USA Today Investigation here.

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