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Maternal deaths in the U.S. keep climbing

The COVID-19 pandemic contributed to the higher rate in 2020 and 2021

An image of a pregnant woman's torso sitting on a couch.

The maternal mortality rate for Black women was 2.6 times the rate for white women in the United States in 2021, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

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By Aimee Cunningham

An increasing number of U.S. women are dying during pregnancy or soon after giving birth, according to the latest data on the maternal mortality rate.