American women are more likely to die of pregnancy-related causes than in 40 other countries

The report, titled "Deadly Delivery," shows that the likelihood of a woman's dying in childbirth in the U.S. is five times as great as in Greece, four times as great as in Germany and three times as great as in Spain, an article in TIME Magazine writes. 

Every day in the U.S., more than two women die of pregnancy-related causes, with the maternal mortality ratio doubling from 6.6 deaths per 100,000 births in 1987 to 13.3 deaths per 100,000 births in 2006. 

The organization hightlights that the actual number of fatalities in the U.S. may be a lot higher, as there are no federal requirements to report them and data collection at state and local levels leaves a lot to be desired.

"In the U.S., we spend more than any country on health care, yet American women are at greater risk of dying from pregnancy-related causes than in 40 other countries," says Nan Strauss, the report's co-author, who has been investigating the subject of maternal mortality worldwide two years. "We thought that was scandalous."


Read more in TIME Magazine...