I. Maternal & Infant Mortality
Harvard Gazette: US Maternal Mortality Rising (2025)
The only rich country getting more dangerous for mothers
The United States is the only developed nation where maternal mortality is rising. Every other high-income country is improving.
In April 2025, Harvard's news outlet published an analysis of pregnancy-related death trends across high-income nations. Every other wealthy country has been pushing maternal mortality down for decades. The US is the only one moving in the opposite direction. The rate has roughly doubled since 1987.
Most of the increase shows up in hypertensive disorders, cardiovascular events, and overdose deaths, but the deeper system factors behind those proximate causes are what researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health point to in the piece. Postpartum follow-up is sparse compared with Europe.
Many women lose insurance coverage within two months of giving birth. Rural maternity wards have been closing for over a decade, creating large maternity deserts where the nearest delivery hospital can be over an hour away. The reporting pulls data from the CDC's vital statistics releases.
2x
US maternal mortality since 1987
Only one
Wealthy country where rate is rising
2 months
Typical postpartum insurance window
1+ hour
Distance to maternity care in rural US
Why it matters
The direction matters. A country that is getting worse at this work, while every peer gets better, is not facing a clinical mystery. It is choosing not to fix the system.
This is one finding from the research library behind How to Birth a Mother. Everything here traces back to a study, a dataset, or a systematic review.