New York birth mothers are at a higher risk of serious injury or death than almost anywhere else in the nation, The New York Times reported. The study, released by the New York Academy of Medicine and the New York City Health Department, reports factors like poverty, obesity and lack of insurance may be responsible.
We question that assertion. Such health factors are common everywhere. And it is the responsibility of a physician to properly monitor a pregnancy and take risk factors into consideration during treatment. Ultimately, even the study's authors acknowledged such factors could not be blamed for the deaths.
The study also pointed to the relatively small number of deaths, which average about 40 a year. But for every fatal case, there are numerous cases of serious injury to a birth mother or child. Anyone dealing with an injury involving pregnancy or child birth should contact a New York City medical malpractice lawyer to discuss their rights.
Of the women who died, 79 percent were giving birth by Cesarean section. While the procedure is often used in problem births, which could be partly responsible for the high mortality rate, Cesarean delivery also carries substantial risk of hemorrhaging and infection. As we reported earlier this year on our New York Injury Lawyer Blog, the rates of C-section births have climbed to what safety advocates have termed "epidemic proportions." The rate is at an all-time high in the United States, where 30 percent of children are delivered by Cesarean section.
New York City's analysis is being billed at one of the most sophisticated examinations of maternal mortality in the nation; it studied 161 women who died of pregnancy-related complications in New York City between 2001 and 2005.
The study found nearly half of women who died were obese and minority women were two to seven times more likely to die as a result of complications during pregnancy. The death rates were the highest in the Bronx and Brooklyn, which have large poor and minority populations. Neighborhoods with the highest death rates were Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights in Brooklyn and Jamaica in Queens. Neighborhoods that reported no deaths included Chelsea and Greenwich Village in Manhattan, Bensonhurst in Brooklyn and Flushing in Queens.
Women without health insurance were four times more likely to die. Although women covered by Medicaid, the government's insurance program for the poor, faired as well as pregnant women with private insurance.
In 2007, the last year for which statistics are available, about 16 mothers died in New York per 100,000 births. That mortality rate ranked the state fourth-worst in the nation. The national rate in 2006 was 13.3 deaths per 100,000 births. Even that rate is triple the government's 2010 target rate of 4.3 deaths.
The United States ranks behind 30 other nations.
And New York City fared even worse. The maternal mortality rate from 2001 to 2005 was 23.1, nearly twice the national average of 11.8 during the same time period.
If you are dealing with a birth injury in New York City, contact the New York medical malpractice attorneys at Queller, Fisher, Washor, Fuchs & Kool for a free and confidential appointment to discuss your rights. Call 866-LifeLaw (866-543-3529).
