ICYMI: Georgia’s Maternal Mortality Increase is Among Worst in US

ATLANTA – This week, a new CDC report found that Georgia was one of just four states to see a statistically significant increase in maternal mortality last year. Georgia already has among the highest maternal mortality rates in the country. The report comes as Georgia Republicans continue refusing to fully expand Medicaid, a move that would help Georgia hospitals stay open and increase access to health care across the state.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: CDC: Georgia’s infant mortality increase is among the worst in U.S.

Ariel Hart, 11/2/23

• Georgia’s infant mortality increase last year was one of the four worst in the nation, with about seven babies dying for every 1,000 births.
  
• In Georgia, 892 infants died in 2022, 116 more infant deaths than the year before. U.S. infant deaths surpassed 20,500 in 2022 — 610 more than the year before nationwide. Black babies had the highest rate of death in the U.S., 10.86 per 1,000 births.
  
• More than 30 states saw at least slight rises in infant mortality rates in 2022. But only four states — Georgia, Iowa, Missouri and Texas — had what is considered significant, statistically clear increases. Georgia’s overall infant mortality increase was 13%, compared to 3% nationwide.
  
• The national rise, from 2021 to 2022, was the largest in two decades, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ky Lindberg, CEO of Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition of Georgia, was dismayed but not shocked.
  
• “It seems as if I am a broken record,” Lindberg said. “Yet the contributing factors attributed to this increase in infant mortality also track with factors attributing to our concerning maternal mortality rates,” she said, citing limited resources for women who give birth.
  
• That includes access to doctors, access to perinatal education, and overall “social determinants of health” — challenging living conditions that make it more likely that a person gets sick and faces difficulty in navigating the health care system. For example, if people live in rural areas and don’t have their own car, that’s a big deal when half of Georgia counties have no OB/Gyn. About nine Georgia counties have no doctor at all.
  
• […] Georgia remains one of 10 states that have rejected government-funded medical coverage for all adults who live below the poverty line. Experts say that would help women in their fertility years to develop a network of doctors and have better health before they get pregnant.

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