On Tuesday, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced new efforts to improve health outcomes during pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum periods. The Blueprint for Addressing the Maternal Health Crisis supports a push from the White House to address rising rates of maternal mortality and morbidity nationwide. Researchers have reported significant disparities by race – Black, American Indian, and Alaska Native Women are two to three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes – and by geography, with a pregnancy-related mortality ratio of 29.4 per 100,000 live births in rural areas, versus 18.2 in urban areas in 2015.
