Black women in the US died at a rate nearly 3.5 times higher than white women around the time of childbirth in 2023, as maternal mortality fell below pre-pandemic levels overall but racial gaps widened, according to federal health data released Wednesday.
Racial gap widened in deaths among US mothers around childbirth in 2023 Black women died at rate nearly 3.5 times higher than white women, CDC data shows.
In 2021 and 2022, the maternal death rate for Black women was about 2.6 times higher than white women.
The maternal death rate for white women dropped from 19 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2022 to 14.5 per 100,000 in 2023.
US births have been declining, and fewer pregnancies contributes to fewer pregnancy-related deaths, noted Eugene Declercq, a maternal deaths researcher at Boston University.
