Maternal Mortality Review

More than two women in the United States die every day from complications of pregnancy and childbirth.¹ The rate of maternal deaths in the United States has been rising, doubling from 6.6 deaths per 100,000 births in1996 to 13.3 deaths per 100,000 births in 2006.² However, approximately half of these deaths could be prevented if maternal health care access and quality were improved.³

There are a number of factors that have led to the current state of maternal health, including unequal access, gaps in care, systemic failures, and financial, bureaucratic and language hurdles.⁴ There has been very little oversight of maternal health trends and a lack of documentation of maternal risk factors, which has made it difficult to implement consistent evidence-based standards.⁵ In response to these patterns, a number of states have set up maternal mortality review committees. While these committees vary in their approach, they maintain a common goal: to track maternal health patterns and effective develop responsive solutions to address the rising rate of maternal mortality.

Does the state have a maternal mortality review board?

States receive a "meets policy" if they have established a maternal mortality review board. States that have a maternal mortality review board in development receive a "limited policy." States that do not have a maternal mortality review board receive a "no policy."

This is a new indicator for the 2010 Report Card.

State	Strength of Policy	Change from 2007
Alabama	No Policy	N/A
Alaska	Meets Policy	N/A
Arizona	No Policy	N/A
Arkansas	No Policy	N/A
California	Meets Policy	N/A
Colorado	Meets Policy	N/A
Connecticut	No Policy	N/A
Delaware	No Policy	N/A
District of Columbia	No Policy	N/A
Florida	Meets Policy	N/A
Georgia	No Policy	N/A
Hawaii	No Policy	N/A
Idaho	No Policy	N/A
Illinois	Meets Policy	N/A
Indiana	Meets Policy	N/A
Iowa	Meets Policy	N/A
Kansas	No Policy	N/A
Kentucky	No Policy	N/A
Louisiana	Meets Policy	N/A
Maine	Meets Policy	N/A
Maryland	Meets Policy	N/A
Massachusetts	Meets Policy	N/A
Michigan	Meets Policy	N/A
Minnesota	No Policy	N/A
Mississippi	No Policy	N/A
Missouri	Limited Policy	N/A
Montana	No Policy	N/A
Nebraska	No Policy	N/A
Nevada	No Policy	N/A
New Hampshire	No Policy	N/A
New Jersey	Meets Policy	N/A
New Mexico	No Policy	N/A
New York	Meets Policy	N/A
North Carolina	Meets Policy	N/A
North Dakota	No Policy	N/A
Ohio	No Policy	N/A
Oklahoma	Meets Policy	N/A
Oregon	No Policy	N/A
Pennsylvania	No Policy	N/A
Rhode Island	No Policy	N/A
South Carolina	Limited Policy	N/A
South Dakota	No Policy	N/A
Tennessee	No Policy	N/A
Texas	No Policy	N/A
Utah	Meets Policy	N/A
Vermont	No Policy	N/A
Virginia	Meets Policy	N/A
Washington	Meets Policy	N/A
West Virginia	Meets Policy	N/A
Wisconsin	Meets Policy	N/A
Wyoming	No Policy	N/A

Policy Indicator Counts

Meets Policy:

21

Limited Policy:

2

Weak Policy:

0

No/Harmful Policy:

28

Better:

0

Same:

0

Worse:

0

Data Source: Amnesty International, "Deadly Delivery: The Maternal Health Care Crisis in the USA," 2010, available at http://www.amnestyusa.org/dignity/pdf/DeadlyDelivery.pdf, accessed September 8, 2010.

Footnotes

¹ M. Heron et al, Deaths: Final Data for 2006, National Vital Statistics Reports, Vol. 57, No. 14: Table 34, April 2009 available at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr57/nvsr57_14.pdf, accessed September 23, 2010.
² Office of Minority Health, “Changing Outcomes–Achieving Health Equity. The National Plan for Action,” December 2009, available at http://www.minorityhealth.hhs.gov/npa/images/plan/nationalplan.pdf, accessed September 23, 2010.
³ S.J. Bacak et al (eds.), State Maternal Mortality Review–Accomplishments of Nine States (Atlanta: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2006) 1.
⁴ Amnesty International, “Deadly Delivery: The Maternal Health Care Crisis in the USA,” March 2010, available at http://www.amnestyusa.org/dignity/pdf/DeadlyDelivery.pdf, accessed September 23, 2010.
⁵ Amnesty International, Deadly Delivery: The Maternal Health Care Crisis in the USA (March 2010), available at http://www.amnestyusa.org/dignity/pdf/DeadlyDelivery.pdf, accessed September 23, 2010.