Reducing Maternal Mortality in US Essay
The problem of the maternal mortality in the US still persists. Even though the US health care system has reached considerable successes in this field in the course of the 20th century, cases of the maternal mortality do occur and recent data show negative trends to the rise of cases of the maternal mortality. However, the problem of the maternal mortality is not only the lack of advancement of the contemporary medicine but also and mainly the major problem today is the lack of data and fast and effective information processing that could have helped to prevent many cases of the maternal mortality in the US. In response to the issue, the US Congress initiated hearings on the reduction of maternal mortality in the US through the improvement of data. Therefore, the reduction of the maternal mortality in the US is possible to achieve through better data collection and processing to provide health care professionals with more accurate data on patients and their conditions to prevent the risk of errors and to maximize the effectiveness of the treatment of patients. Reducing Maternal Mortality in US Essay
The current maternal mortality rate is much lower compared to the distant past, but the recent trends are quite disturbing. Although the pregnancy-related mortality ratio fell in the U.S. during the 20th century, more recently over the last two decades, the number of American women who die each year from a pregnancy-related cause has increased dramatically. Since the Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance System was implemented, the number of reported pregnancy-related deaths in the nation has steadily increased from 7.2 deaths per 100,000 live births in 1987 to a high of 17.8 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2009 and 2011. More recent data is even more alarming. A 2015 World Health Organization (WHO) report pointed out that the U.S. has a high maternal mortality rate and that half of the U.S. deaths were preventable. In addition, a 2016 report in the Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology found that from 2000 to 2014, the maternal mortality rate for 48 states and Washington, D.C. increased nearly 27 percent from close to 18.8 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2000 to 23.8 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2014. This means that the problem of the maternal mortality aggravates as the ration of maternal deaths grows, while the overall level of the maternal rate remains low due to the overall rise in pregnancies and successful deliveries. The maternal mortality is very challenging because health care professionals traditionally pay a particular attention to the safety and survival of mothers after the delivery of children.Reducing Maternal Mortality in US Essay
At the same time, the reasons for the overall increase in pregnancy-related deaths are not fully understood. However, without understanding reasons for the overall increase in pregnancy-related deaths it is impossible to develop effective preventive policies. At the moment, the lack of clarity on reasons for the maternal mortality increase is the result of the lack of the accurate data that would provide the information on reasons of pregnancy-related deaths nationwide. The difference between states in terms of recording and reporting pregnancy-related death results in substantial difficulties in processing the data and collecting the data. This is why finding out reasons for the maternal mortality increase is still a challenge to resolve while reasons of this trend are and will be unclear without accurate data collected nationwide. Better data surrounding maternal mortality should allow for a better understanding of its causes. This understanding can help educate health care providers and institutions so they can better optimize quality of care in order to prevent maternal deaths wherever possible. Therefore, better data are the key to the prevention of the maternal mortality.
Better data collection, changes in the way causes of death are coded, and the addition of a pregnancy “checkbox” to the death certificate in many states have likely improved identification of pregnancy-related deaths over time. In this regard, the elaboration of national standards of data collection, coding and reporting of pregnancy-related deaths is pivotal because such standards will help to collect the homogeneous, standardized data on the maternal mortality. The use of identical standards allows researchers and analysts to study the data and identify common trends and, what is more important, reasons for pregnancy-related deaths. Such data may help to find out reasons for the increase of the maternal mortality rate.
The identification of the main reasons of the maternal mortality will help policy makers to elaborate new policies and procedures that can help to prevent risks and minimize the threat of the maternal mortality. Such reasons are more important for health care professionals, who should also understand reasons and the major causes of the maternal mortality. Health care professionals need to know the major risk factors and potential threats, which they have to address to prevent the death of their patients during the pregnancy or labors. The high mortality rate becomes challenging for health care professionals but the lack of the data and the lack of clear understanding of reasons of the maternal mortality makes health care professionals unprepared to possible complications and problems that lead to deaths of women.Reducing Maternal Mortality in US Essay
At this point, it is worth mentioning the fact that the maternal mortality is the tip of the iceberg regarding the poor performance of the United States in women’s health. The maternal mortality is often the result of complex health problems in women, which they either ignored or were unaware of, while health care professionals also fail to take into consideration risks associated with women’s health issues and pregnancy. Pregnancy is the condition that maximizes resources of human body and women need to come up to pregnancy in a good health condition, while any problems, especially women’s health issues, may represent a serious threat not only to their pregnancy but also to their life. Therefore, better data are needed not only with regard to the maternal mortality but also with regard to women’s health and its possible correlation to the maternal mortality. The US health care system and health care professionals need to establish better data systems to document the problem and then develop systems that focus on women’s health, not just when they are pregnant, but throughout the life-course. In such a way, health care professionals will be able to prevent pregnancy-related deaths even more successfully, than when they get the data on the maternal mortality and find out reasons of the maternal mortality.Reducing Maternal Mortality in US Essay
Thus, the problem of the maternal mortality in the US does not only persist but also aggravates in the US because of the lack of understanding reasons for the maternal death, while the major cause of such understanding is the lack of the data collected and processed nationwide. The better data collection and their processing are essential for understanding reasons for the maternal mortality. The data need to be standardized nationwide and collected for the further processing by health care professionals, who can determine the major reasons for the maternal death. In such a way, they will be able to identify the major risk factors and address them to prevent the maternal mortality. However, health care professionals need bigger data on the women’s health because it also influences the maternal mortality and the women’s health has to be taken into consideration too, while developing strategies to prevent the maternal mortality.Reducing Maternal Mortality in US Essay