News: U.S. maternal mortality rate declined in 2023

Based on data from the National Vital Statistics System, maternal mortality rates in the United States decreased from 22.3 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2022 to a rate of 18.6 deaths in 2023, according to JustCoding.

A maternal death is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as “the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and the site of the pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management, but not from accidental or incidental causes.”

The recently finalized data showed that maternal mortality rates decreased significantly in 2023 for White and Hispanic women compared to rates for Black and Asian women.  The maternal mortality rate for Black women in 2023 was 50.3 deaths per 100,000 live births, a figure that was significantly higher than rates for White (14.5), Hispanic (12.4), and Asian (10.7) women.

Differences in the rates between age groups were statistically significant as well. The rate for women ages 40 and older (59.8) was nearly five times higher than the rate for women younger than age 25 (12.5). Nevertheless, rates decreased significantly between 2022 and 2023 for women ages 25–39 (18.1) and ages 40 and older.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in JustCoding.