Abstract

The National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women's Health (NPWH) supports coordinated and collaborative efforts at federal, state, local, and professional organization levels to eliminate preventable maternal deaths. A death is considered preventable if it is determined that there was some chance the death could have been averted by one or more changes to community, health facility, patient, provider, and/or system-level factors. The latest estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention highlight that 4 in 5 pregnancy-related deaths in the United States are preventable. Despite this preventability, data from the National Vital Statistics System from 2018 to 2021 indicate that pregnancy-related mortality rates (PRMRs) have continued to climb. The reported 2021 maternal mortality rate was 32.9 deaths/100,000 live births, nearly double the rate of 17.4/100,000 in 2018. The PRMR in the US remains exceedingly high compared to all other resource-rich countries.

NPWH advocates for legislation, policies, and initiatives that promote access to care and the establishment and implementation of evidence-based healthcare practices to improve maternal outcomes. Ongoing research is needed to identify factors contributing to maternal mortality and to establish effective preventive strategies.

Reducing disparities in maternal mortality must be a priority. NPWH supports action at all levels that addresses socioeconomic factors, barriers to access to quality healthcare, and implicit bias of healthcare providers and other healthcare workers, all of which contribute to disparities in healthcare services and health outcomes.

Author Details

As a national professional membership organization, NPWH is the nation's leading voice for courageous conversations about women's health. In our clinics and in our culture, women's health nurse practitioners champion state-of-the-science health care that holistically addresses the unique needs of women across their lifetimes. We elevate the health issues others overlook and compel attention on women's health from providers, policymakers, and researchers.

Sigma Membership

Non-member

Lead Author Affiliation

National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women's Health, Washington, DC, USA

Type

Position Statement

Format Type

Text-based Document

Study Design/Type

Expert Opinion (nationally/internationally recognized)

Research Approach

N/A

Keywords:

Maternal Deaths, Maternal Mortality, Health Disparities, Women's Health Nurse Practitioners

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Publisher

The National Association of Nurse Practioners in Women's Health

Version

Publisher's Version

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All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.

All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.

Review Type

None: Reputation-based Submission

Acquisition

Self-submission

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