Tennessee pregnancy-related deaths fell 26% in 2022 after surged during the community outbreak, according to a new report released by the state’s health department. continued along racial, economic and geographical lines.

Black women, unmarried women, poor women, less educated women, and women living in urban areas continued to die at a higher rate in Tennessee during pregnancy and subsequent postpartum years.

The type of pregnant patients under health insurance also played an important role. Pregnancy-related mortality rates among women who rely on TENCARE – the state’s Medicaid insurance program for people in poverty – was nearly three times higher than those who have private health insurance, reported The book was discovered.

In the 33 counties that make up the state’s eastern third, pregnancy deaths spiked in 2022. This is a trending state authorities primarily due to substance use disorders. East Tennessee has seen a four-fold increase in these deaths between 2020 and 2022 compared to 2017-2019.

Research shows a sharp increase in maternal deaths over 20 years

“The burden of these deaths is not shared equally. Significant disparities continue across racial, socioeconomic and geographical groups,” read the report.

Annual review of Tennessee’s pregnancy deaths, published in late December, covers 2021 and 2022, covering the period during which the Covid pandemic and Tennessee’s abortion ban were marked. Long-term trends make it difficult to assess.

Both Covid-era years saw an increase in pregnancy-related deaths. In 2019, for example, Tennessee saw 63 such deaths.

In 2020, when the pandemic began, 98 mothers died.

In 2021 there were 134. The authors of the report also said it reflected the addition of new discharge data.

By 2022, deaths had dropped to 100.

In August 2022, Tennessee’s near-simultaneous abortion ban came into effect, providing narrow exceptions for serious health risks for pregnant patients. Doctors and reproductive rights advocates criticized the exceptions to the law as being very vague, preventing doctors from providing life-saving care.

After the law was introduced for two years, a three-court state panel agreed to the view and found that some of the state’s ban was vaguely expressed. The October 2024 panel temporarily blocked the Tennessee ban as it applies to certain dangerous pregnancy complications.

a Propublica’s series of research stories To avoid emphasizing these deaths, mothers recorded due to infection, bleeding, other pregnancy-related causes, and other pregnancy-related causes in other states due to political pressure on the state’s maternal mortality review board. death of.

The Tennessee Maternal Mortality Report was compiled by an interdisciplinary team of state governments and private sector health professionals. The report focuses on the deaths of mothers between 2021 and 2022. The report covers the period in which the state’s abortion ban was in effect, but does not include an assessment of whether it played a role in the state’s abortion policy or the state’s pregnancy death.

The report distinguishes “pregnancy-related” mortality rates, i.e. deaths that occurred during pregnancy and the year after birth — and “pregnancy-related” mortality rates, which are a subset of all maternal deaths specific to pregnancy complications. I will.

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Pregnancy-related mortality rates include factors such as domestic violence and murder. This is a well-documented risk factor in pregnancy that is not directly related to the patient’s continued physical health. Pregnancy-related mortality is specific to health conditions that are either brought about or worsened by pregnancy.

Deaths related to pregnancy-related complications fell by 15% overall in 2022 the previous year, but these deaths accounted for the majority of all mother deaths.

The report’s recommendations include a set of education, screening and training improvements for hospitals and healthcare providers.

The report found that “half of all contributors in the death of pregnant patients occurred at the provider level, including “failure to recognize early warning signs of complications.”

Recommendations include increased state funding for high-risk pregnancy interventions and increased health insurance coverage for women of reproductive age.

One recommendation targeting law enforcement encourages a better lethal assessment in domestic violence cases. Domestic violence claimed the lives of four pregnant Tennessee women in 2022.

Report – Maternal Mortality Rate in Tennessee