During a recent five-year period, a substantial portion of maternal deaths in the United States – almost one-third – took place more than six weeks after childbirth, at a time when most new mothers think they are in the clear, researchers reported recently.
The study, published in JAMA Network Open, is one of the first to track maternal health complications during pregnancy and in the year after delivery.
Pregnancy-related death rates in the US rose almost 28% from 2018 to 2022, the researchers found, surging at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021 before subsiding somewhat.
“Our study illustrates why we can’t take our eyes off maternal health,” said Dr Rose L. Molina, an associate professor of obstetrics, gynaecology and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School and one of the study’s authors.
Women need “access to high-quality care from the moment of conception to a full year after birth,” she added.
The study was based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s division of reproductive health, which monitors maternal mortality and identified the risk of so-called later maternal deaths – those that occur from six weeks to one year after the birth.
The Trump administration shuttered the division amid mass layoffs and a restructuring of the agency, even though the US has far higher maternal mortality rates than any other industrialised nation, with stark disparities among racial and ethnic groups.
Cardiovascular disease was the leading cause of pregnancy-related deaths overall, as well as the leading cause of late maternal deaths.
Other major causes were cancer, mental and behavioural disorders, and drug- and alcohol-induced deaths.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists now recommends that all women see a doctor within the first three weeks after having a baby, with follow-up and ongoing care as needed, and a comprehensive postpartum visit no later than 12 weeks after birth. – ©2025 The New York Times Company
