Category: Maternal Health in the US

  • CDC Releases Maternal Mortality Rates for 2024

    CDC Releases Maternal Mortality Rates for 2024

    The new maternal mortality rates from 2024 were released this week from the National Center for Health Statistics. Most of the data remain the same as in 2023, with a modest decrease in maternal deaths from 669 to 649.

  • Celebrate Women’s Day: Get Your Free E-Book

    Celebrate Women’s Day: Get Your Free E-Book

    We are giving away our e-book, Simple Steps to Become a Maternal Health Advocate, for free to members of our community only.

  • The Best States for Women’s Health

    The Best States for Women’s Health

    Did you know there are 169 million women in the United States? Studies show that one-third of women postpone necessary medical care due primarily to a lack of access and rising health care costs.

  • Texas Cities Have Some of the Highest Preterm Birth Rates in the US, Highlighting Maternal Health Crisis Nationwide

    Texas Cities Have Some of the Highest Preterm Birth Rates in the US, Highlighting Maternal Health Crisis Nationwide

    The March of Dimes report scored the U.S. overall a D+ grade on preterm birth rate at 10.4%, but states differ dramatically in their scores. New Hampshire, for example, scored an A- with 7.9% of infants born prematurely, while Mississippi, where 15% of infants are born prematurely, scored an F.

  • When You Start Knowing Women Who Have Passed Away After Childbirth

    When You Start Knowing Women Who Have Passed Away After Childbirth

    A few years ago a family member died unexpectedly after childbirth. Her passing completely wrecked her family and they still have not recovered from her loss. And recently I learned of the recent passing of another mother who died immediately after childbirth. She was a community activist and focused her efforts on maternal health issues.…

  • President Signed the Maternal and Child Health Stillbirth Prevention Act of 2024

    President Signed the Maternal and Child Health Stillbirth Prevention Act of 2024

    My sweet mother always told me about her many births. In all, four of us lived, but many did not. Several of my would-be brothers and sisters passed away from still or crib birth. Some were named and some were not. My mother has always been extremely powerful to share her birth experiences with me…

  • Arizona’s Now-Repealed Abortion Ban Serves As a Cautionary Tale For Reproductive Health Care Across the US

    Arizona’s Now-Repealed Abortion Ban Serves As a Cautionary Tale For Reproductive Health Care Across the US

    When the Arizona Supreme Court ruled on April 9, 2024, that the state’s Civil War-era law banning nearly all abortions was enforceable, it brought into stark reality the potential impacts of leaving reproductive rights up to the states to regulate, and the related consequences for women’s health.

  • Breaking: Supreme Court Ruling Allows Mifepristone to Stay on the Market

    Breaking: Supreme Court Ruling Allows Mifepristone to Stay on the Market

    The Supreme Court unanimously ruled today that FDA-approved mifepristone can stay on the market. That is, mifepristone can still be prescribed by physicians and accessed by telehealth and mail-order. The Court stayed the lower courts’ decision to ban the use of the pill stating that the plaintiffs lack standing. We recognize that many citizens, including…

  • Pending Reproductive Health Decisions on the Supreme Court Docket

    Pending Reproductive Health Decisions on the Supreme Court Docket

    Supreme Court decisions are expected this month about legal doctor and mail-order prescriptions of the FDA-approved abortion pill, mifepristone, as well as whether health practitioners can provide pregnant patients with stabilizing emergency services such as an abortion where appropriate and essential for stabilization or survival.

  • Study Shows Increase in Maternal Mortality by Race and Ethnicity Over Last 20 Years

    Study Shows Increase in Maternal Mortality by Race and Ethnicity Over Last 20 Years

    Another recent study, Trends in State-Level Maternal Mortality by Racial and Ethnic Group in the United States published in JAMA, has provided data showing that maternal health outcomes in the United States are worsening despite state and national interventions to decrease maternal mortality.

  • New Documentaries About the Maternal Health Crisis, Sex Trafficking Coming to VOD This Year

    New Documentaries About the Maternal Health Crisis, Sex Trafficking Coming to VOD This Year

    When I want to learn more about a subject I always turn to documentaries. They provide a quick way to get the facts and crucial information about an issue I am interested in and then if I want to learn more I turn to other resources including books, news articles, research papers, and the like.…

  • World Health Leaders Change Targets to Reach 2030 Maternal Health Development Goal

    World Health Leaders Change Targets to Reach 2030 Maternal Health Development Goal

    The COVID pandemic did much to upend global health. Not only were hospitals filled to overcapacity worldwide with patients experiencing severe COVID symptoms, but entire health systems were also brought to a halt. Routine medical procedures and quality care in other areas besides COVID were preempted by the global virus. This has caused global health…

  • 5 Virtual Valentine’s Day Gifts to Help Mothers Worldwide

    5 Virtual Valentine’s Day Gifts to Help Mothers Worldwide

    This year while we are all still mostly locked down due to Covid-19, there are ways in which we can donate to the issues we care about most. For SocialGoodMoms.com, our primary issue is mothers — always has been and always will be — and there are a vast majority of ways to help moms…

  • 2021 Black Maternal Health Legislation Updated With Covid-19, Climate Change Bills #Momnibus

    2021 Black Maternal Health Legislation Updated With Covid-19, Climate Change Bills #Momnibus

    In 2020, Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-IL) and Rep. Alma Adams (D-NC) along with then California senator Kamala Harris introduced the Black Maternal Health Momnibus, a series of nine bills that took racial disparities out of the maternal health outcomes, funded communty-based maternal health organizations, improved data collection, and invested in digital health tools among other pertinent issues.…

  • Black Doctor Dies During Childbirth #MaternalHealth #BlackMaternalHeaLTH

    Black Doctor Dies During Childbirth #MaternalHealth #BlackMaternalHeaLTH

    I do not take pleasure in writing about black maternal health in general or specifically about black women who die either during pregnancy, giving birth, directly after birth, or even a year after having a baby. In fact, it is depressing. In this case, however, despite the other women who have died publicly during and/or…

  • CDC Launches Campaign To Raise Awareness About Pregnancy and Postpartum Warning Signs

    CDC Launches Campaign To Raise Awareness About Pregnancy and Postpartum Warning Signs

    The other day I wrote about a Youtube mom who recently gave birth to her son and then recognized that her blood pressure was too high after she was released from the hospital. She immediately visited her OBGYN and then ultimately was hospitalized due to the severity of her condition, preeclampsia. You can follow her…

  • [VIDEO] Mother Advocates for Her Own Health After Delivery And Preeclampsia #BlackMaternalHealth

    [VIDEO] Mother Advocates for Her Own Health After Delivery And Preeclampsia #BlackMaternalHealth

    A few years ago I was honored to speak at Blogher with Merck for Mothers. The panel was about maternal health outcomes globally as well as in the United States. As I have mentioned so many times on this blog, the United States leads the developing world with maternal health deaths. This number is exaccerbated…

  • The CDC Releases Newly Updated Maternal Death Statistics in Over a Decade

    The CDC Releases Newly Updated Maternal Death Statistics in Over a Decade

    United States maternal death statistics that have been used for over a decade have finally been updated. The CDC released 2018 national and state maternal death estimates last week. The numbers have increased dramatically and still remain the worst of any developed country in the world. Currently, the maternal mortality rate (MMR) is 17.4 deaths…

  • Woman Dies From Pregnancy-Related Complications After Waiting Hours in Emergency Room

    Woman Dies From Pregnancy-Related Complications After Waiting Hours in Emergency Room

    You have probably heard the story of Tashonna Ward, the 25-year-old Milwaukee woman who recently spent hours in the emergency room due to shortness of breath and died after waiting too long. Ward was told that she would spend between two to six hours in wait time at the ER according to distressing posts on…

  • Vice Presidential Nominee Kamala Harris on Successful Black Maternal Health Outcomes

    Vice Presidential Nominee Kamala Harris on Successful Black Maternal Health Outcomes

    It has been a historic week with the announcement of Kamala D. Harris as the first black woman nominee for vice president. Pundits and political experts alike will, without doubt, parse through her record from her time working as DA of San Francisco and Attorney General of California as well as serving in the United…