Researchers studying maternal mortality in the United States recently reported an ominous trend: The rate of pregnancy-related deaths in Texas seemed to have doubled since 2010, making the Lone Star State one of the most dangerous places in the developed world to have a baby. Reproductive health advocates were quick to blame the legislature for slashing funding in 2011–12 to family-planning clinics that serve low-income women, calling the numbers a “tragedy” and “a national embarrassment.”
Now a 15-member state task force has issued its own maternal mortality report, offering a new view of what might be going on. The bottom line: Maternal deaths have indeed been increasing in Texas, members said, and African-American women are bearing the brunt of the crisis. For 2011 and 2012, black mothers accounted for 11.4 percent of Texas births but 28.8 percent of pregnancy-related deaths.
“The disparity in the rates for African-American women is incredibly important and not widely recognized,” said Lisa Hollier, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston who heads the Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Task Force.
[For more of this story, written by Nina Martin, go to https://psmag.com/texas-is-one...a5b35dc7f#.vlcfylzid]
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