US maternal morbidity appears to be related to race: study

NEW YORK - Racial disparity is one of the main reasons US women are at different levels of risk of severe complications during pregnancy, childbirth or postpartum, a new study has suggested.

The United States has the highest rate of mothers dying in pregnancy or childbirth among high-income countries, with Washington, DC, having the highest rate of morbidity rates, CNN reported on Thursday, citing the study published in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.

According to a report released last year by the DC Maternal Mortality Review Committee, around 90 percent of the pregnancy-related deaths in DC were among Black mothers.

"The research really highlights that we have a long way to go still towards achieving maternal health equity in the US," Dr. Lindsay Admon from the University of Michigan Medical School, who led the study, has said.

"I think it's structural racism and that there's a great deal of implicit and explicit bias that happens with health care, and those are really important issues that we need to tackle."