Deadly Delivery

Someone recommended that I read the Deadly Delivery report on maternal mortality by Amnesty International. It really was eye opening. Their key recommendations include:

• Health care providers should ensure that sufficient, accessible information is available to all women so that they can make informed decisions about their health care.
  

• The US Congress should direct and fund the Department of Health and Human Services to establish an Office of Maternal Health with a mandate to improve maternal health care and outcomes, and eliminate disparities.

• State and federal authorities should devise and implement programs to improve data collection and analysis in order to better identify and develop responses to issues contributing to maternal deaths and complications. This may include requiring all states to report maternal deaths and morbidity to federal agencies, including the CDC, on an annual basis and standardizing data collection tools.

The stories are so touching and the “care” so appalling.