US maternal mortality rate far higher than in peer nations, report finds

Researchers found that in 2022, 22.3 US women per 100,000 died either during pregnancy or within a year of giving birth, a slight improvement from 2021, when women died at a rate of 32.9 per 100,000. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

The US has a far higher rate of maternal mortality than other peer wealthy nations, and an extraordinary disparity between white and Black Americans, according to a new brief released by the Commonwealth Fund.

The American outlier status persisted even as the maternal mortality rate has improved in the post-pandemic era, both in the US and globally.