MCH Ole's List: Maternal Mortality

• global rate in 2008 was 251 maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births
• The highest rate was in Afghanistan (1,575) and the lowest in Italy (4). The United States was 17, Canada 7 and Mexico 52.
• More than half of all maternal deaths (about 343,000 in 2008) occurred in only six countries, researchers found: India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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• 32 percent in 2007, the country’s highest rate ever
• In addition to health and safety risks for mothers and newborns, hospital charges for a Caesarean delivery are almost double those for a vaginal delivery, imposing significant costs
• The highest rates of Caesarean births were in New Jersey (38.3 percent) and Florida (37.2 percent), and the lowest were in Utah (22.2 percent) and Alaska (22.6 percent)
• the increased tendency to induce labor before a woman’s due date, for reasons of convenience, has helped push up the Caesarean rate, because induction is more likely than natural labor to fail and result in a Caesarean.

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