Black women in the U.S. died at a rate nearly 3.5 times higher than white women around the time of childbirth in 2023, as maternal mortality fell below prepandemic levels overall but racial gaps widened, according to federal health data released Wednesday.
In 2021 and 2022, the maternal death rate for Black women was about 2.6 times higher than white women.
The data suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic, at its peak, impacted all pregnant women. But “once we went back to ‘usual activities,’ then the impact of systemic racism and unequal access (to medical care) … came right back into place,” said Dr. Amanda Williams, interim medical director for the March of Dimes. Read more at www.thegrio.com.
