Raul Arboleda via Creative Commons
A pregnant person getting the COVID-19 vaccine.
The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has caused a sudden increase in maternal mortality rates, particularly among marginalized communities. The United States is one of only thirteen countries where maternal mortality rates are worse than they were in the 1980s.
Studies show that Black and Indigenous people are two to three times more likely to experience poor maternal outcomes compared to white people in the United States. Centers for Disease Control data also shows that pregnant Black people are the least vaccinated, with only 20 percent receiving the vaccine during pregnancy.
Those who are most impacted by maternal mortality are people living in poverty and remote areas who lack access to health care services.
The National Institutes of Health refers to “maternal mortality” as death from complications during “pregnancy or within six weeks after the pregnancy ends.” Major complications account for almost 75 percent of all maternal deaths, which are typically caused by severe bleeding after birth, infections, pre-eclampsia, eclampsia, and delivery complications, according to The Lancet.
Those who are most impacted by maternal mortality are people living in poverty and remote areas who lack access to health care services.
On October 10, The Guardian reported that one in six people who are hospitalized with COVID-19 in the United Kingdom are unvaccinated pregnant people.
Additionally, a recent study from the Texas A&M University Health Science Center shows that Mexico’s maternal mortality rate has skyrocketed by 60 percent between February 2020 and February 2021.
Dr. Alex Polyakov, the clinical director of Melbourne IVF at the Royal Women’s Hospital in Australia, believes that there are two big reasons for the spiking rates: “Pregnant people are much more hesitant to get vaccinated because of concerns amplified by misinformation,” he tells The Progressive.
“COVID-19 in pregnancy appears to be a more severe disease,” Polyakov adds, “and this has a clear physiological basis since pregnancy itself is an immunocompromised state.”
In the United States, the fight for maternal health is an ongoing battle, with two federal bills currently moving forward.
The first is the Black Maternal Health ‘Momnibus’ Act of 2021, which builds on existing legislation to address every issue of the maternal health crisis in the United States. The Black Maternal Health ‘Momnibus’ Act will provide funding to community-based organizations working to improve maternal health, diversify the perinatal workforce, improve data collection, and improve health care and support for incarcerated moms, to name a few.
The second is the Mothers and Offspring Mortality and Morbidity Awareness Act (MOMMA), which will improve data collection, disseminate information on effective interventions, and expand access to health care and social services for postpartum parents. The bill wishes to provide “CDC grants for state-based collaboratives to improve care immediately before and after birth and to improve maternal and infant health outcomes, and a HRSA program to improve the quality and safety of maternity care.”
As of February 2021, the act has been referred to the Committee of Finance.