Following decades of decline, maternal mortality began to rise in the United States around 1990—a significant departure from the world’s other affluent countries. By 2018, the same could be seen with the maternal mortality rate in the United States at 17.4 maternal deaths per 100 000 live births. When factoring in race/ethnicity, this number was more than double among non-Hispanic Black women who experienced 37.1 maternal deaths per 100 000 live births. More than half of thesedeaths and near deaths were from preventable causes, with cardiovascular disease being the leading one.
