The U.S. has the worst rate of maternal deaths in the developed world, and 60 percent are preventable. The death of Lauren Bloomstein, a neonatal nurse, in the hospital where she worked illustrates a profound disparity: the health care system focuses on babies but often ignores their mothers.
Measures used at California hospitals to stop excessive bleeding in childbirth are saving an average of almost $18 per birth, for statewide annual health care savings of $9 million, according to new research by scientists at Stanford Medicine and the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative.
Kern County has one of the highest infant mortality rates in California and mothers die during pregnancy and childbirth in the San Joaquin Valley at a higher rate than in any other region of the state. Simultaneously, research shows that maternal mortality rates are rising among the country’s Latino population.
The U.S. has the worst rate of maternal deaths in the developed world, and 60 percent are preventable. The death of Lauren Bloomstein, a neonatal nurse, in the hospital where she worked illustrates a profound disparity: the health care system focuses on babies but often ignores their mothers.
Despite years of efforts to reduce the use of cesarean sections in delivering babies, rates remain high, especially in the South. Black women, particularly, are more likely to give birth by C-section.