From Robert Reich: http://robertreich.org/post/85556159055
Robert Reich
Monday, May 12, 2014
According to a report
released last week in the widely-respected health research journal, The
Lancet, the United States now ranks 60th out of 180 countries on
maternal deaths occurring during pregnancy and childbirth.
To put it bluntly, for every 100,000 births in America last year, 18.5 women died. That’s compared to 8.2 women who died during pregnancy and birth in Canada, 6.1 in Britain, and only 2.4 in Iceland.
A woman giving birth in America is more than twice as likely to die as a woman in Saudi Arabia or China.
You
might say international comparisons should be taken with a grain of
salt because of difficulties of getting accurate measurements across
nations. Maybe China hides the true extent of its maternal deaths. But
Canada and Britain?
Even if you’re still skeptical, consider that
our rate of maternal death is heading in the wrong direction. It’s risen
over the past decade and is now nearly the highest in a quarter
century.
In 1990, the maternal mortality rate in America was 12.4 women per 100,000 births. In 2003, it was 17.6. Now it’s 18.5.
That’s
not a measurement error because we’ve been measuring the rate of
maternal death in the United States the same way for decades.
By contrast, the rate has been dropping in most other nations. In fact, we’re one of just eight nations
in which it’s been rising. The others that are heading in the wrong
direction with us are not exactly a league we should be proud to be a
member of. They include Afghanistan, El Salvador, Belize, and South
Sudan.
China was ranked 116 in 1990. Now it’s moved up to 57. Even
if China’s way of measuring maternal mortality isn’t to be trusted,
China is going in the right direction. We ranked 22 in 1990. Now, as
I’ve said, we’re down to 60th place.
Something’s clearly wrong.
Continue reading at: http://robertreich.org/post/85556159055
Thursday, May 15, 2014
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