The PMSS not only monitors pregnancy-associated deaths. It turns the data into useful intel. Now, health experts can act intelligently to curb maternal deaths in the U.S.
To better understand the usefulness of precise data collection in healthcare, let’s look at a statistic: Every year, for every 100,000 women,
about 14 women tragically lose their lives during pregnancy or due to complications after delivery.
While as a proportion of the total population, this number may appear to be less, it still constitutes an important public health issue. In addition, the PRMR is heterogeneous among racial and ethnic groups.
These patterns are also evident, albeit with
even higher PRMRs among African American, American Indian, and Alaska Native women (3 to 4 times greater than that of White women). These findings underscore the importance of providing targeted interventions to overcome disparities and improve the universal quality of women's facility-based maternal health care.
PMSS even provides state-level data beyond national statistics. This Featured Map helps state and local health partners to find states with higher PRMRs. Think of a state that is particularly deadly from pre-eclampsia. Through analyzing PMSS data, officials might find that specialized prenatal care services capable of handling high-risk pregnancies are simply not available.