VP HARRIS/White House issues nationwide call to action on maternal health crisis

[Budi]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.goodmorningamerica.com/amp/wellness/story/white-house-issues-nationwide-call-action-maternal-health-81604068
Video at GMA Link

The Biden administration on Tuesday issued a "nationwide call to action" on the maternal health crisis in the United States, which continues to have the highest rate of maternal mortality among developed nations, according to researchers.

Vice President Kamala Harris said in remarks at the White House's first Maternal Health Day of Action that the call to action is being made to both the public and private sectors.

"This challenge is urgent, and it is important, and it will take all of us," Harris said, kicking off a summit that convened lawmakers, Cabinet secretaries and celebrities, including Olympian Allyson Felix. "To put it simply, in the United States of America, in the 21st century, being pregnant and giving birth should not carry such great risk."

"But the truth is, and this is a hard truth, women in our nation are dying before, during and after childbirth,"

[sheshe2]

1. Very informative article at the link.

Black and Native American women in the U.S. are two to three times as likely to die during childbirth or in the months after than white women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Black women are also more likely than white, Asian or Latina women to die from pregnancy-related complications regardless of their education level or their income, data shows.

Pregnancy-related deaths are defined as the death of a woman during pregnancy or within a year of the end of pregnancy from pregnancy complications, a chain of events initiated by pregnancy or the aggravation of an unrelated condition by the physiological effects of pregnancy, according to the CDC.

One reason for the disparity is that more Black women of childbearing age have chronic diseases, such as high blood pressure and diabetes, which increases the risk of pregnancy-related complications like preeclampsia and possibly the need for emergency C-sections, according to the CDC.

Thank you for posting this.