Why Minority Maternal Death Has Increased 100%

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, more than 17 million women are uninsured, and millions more are under-insured. The recession has caused women to be displaced and out of work. A growing majority, particularly minorities, struggle to find work because they are disproportionately uneducated or undereducated. Thus, they rely on their husbands to insure them through his employment. The problem begins when he finds himself out of work due to divorce or being widowed, if their husband becomes old enough to qualify for Medicare, or if their partner's employer decides to drop dependent coverage because the cost of insurance is skyrocketing.

As we watch and wait for the White House to pass the bill for universal or government health care, we overlook the blinding statistics that the unequal medical coverage for all Americans is a major reason why the U.S has higher maternal mortality than almost any other industrialized country.

According the Washington Post, "more than two women die every day in the USA from pregnancy-related causes. Maternal deaths are only the tip of the iceberg. Severe complications, which result in a woman nearly dying and known as a 'near miss', increased by 25 per cent between 1998 and 2005. During 2004 and 2005, 68,433 women nearly died in childbirth in the USA."

Amnesty International quickly points out that not only will the current health reform as it stands right now will not lower maternal death rates, but it will only cause more racial gaps in insurance coverage. The U.S has one of the best medical technologies, but it is not provided to all Americans equally and fairly. Worse, anti-abortionist movements have not taken notice of this fact. They are, for the majority, against the single act or procedure of ending a baby's life. They have not taken into consideration that if Americans of all races and nationalities were provided equal or similar care and provided affordable insurance, there would not be a disproportionate number of minority babies being aborted, miscarried, born prematurely, born into grave poverty, and lack resources to grow up strong and healthy.

Are we as a nation pro-life only until birth? The Amnesty International Report suggests we are! Consider for a moment the following:

-"One in four women does not receive adequate prenatal care, starting in the first trimester. The number rises to about one in three for African American and Native American women."
-"Medicaid burdens women with providing a gamut of bureaucratic paperwork to prove the pregnancy, the due date, sonograms, and other medically necessary paperwork before they will even consider covering a woman's medical care. This requires going to a doctor and spending money they don't have."
-"A shortage of health care professionals is a serious obstacle to timely and adequate care, especially in rural areas and inner cities. In 2008, 64 million people were living in "shortage areas" for primary care (which includes maternal care)."

We, in a rich country full of opportunities, are 40^th in the world for lifetime risk of maternal death. In line with to the Amnesty International Report, in 1987, the rate was 6.6 deaths per 100,000 live births; in 2006, it had risen to 13.3 deaths per 100,000 live births. That means maternal death has more than doubled in the past 20 years! African-American women are four times as likely to die from maternal death as white women.

More Cesarean sections are being performed now in the U.S (1 in 3 pregnancies- the WHO recommends no more than 5 to 10 % of all births result in C-sections). There are more evasive procedures being executed as well. How can this be? Why are our Black sisters being singled out and treated as second class citizens? Do they not fight in our wars? Do they not pay our taxes and vote for our elected leaders? Do they not color our prosperous country with culture and diversity?

The United States goal to reduce maternal deaths to 4.3 deaths per 100,000 live births by 2010, codified in the U.S. Healthy People 2010 objectives, has been met by only five states thus far. It is now more risky to give birth in California than Kuwait and Bosnia!

What are the five highest risk factors of maternal death for any woman?

-Embolism
-Hemorrhage
-Pre-eclampsia and eclampsia (diseases associated with high blood pressure)
-Infection and cardiomyopathy (heart muscle disease)

Poverty and the lack of access to prenatal care should not be the reasons why so many women are dying to give birth. If we ignore the "8000 pound elephant" in our living rooms, so to speak, every day, how can we be expected to grow and prosper as a nation? How can we improve and rise above the scandalous status of third-world countries we seem to always be at war with? We judge the speck in their own eye and we have a mountain in our own! Don't be misinformed and so quick to believe that health care reform is actually going to be a fix-all for all of the medical and insurance problems in America!