The stakes

Mental health conditions, including suicide and overdose, are the leading underlying cause of pregnancy-related deaths in the US. They accounted for 27.7% in 2022 CDC data. The CDC has found that four in five pregnancy-related deaths are preventable.

This Is Why, Part 6 of 7: This is the leading cause of pregnancy-related death

When people hear “maternal mortality,” they usually picture hemorrhage or complications in the delivery room.

But in CDC data from state maternal mortality review committees, mental health conditions, including suicide and overdose, were the leading underlying cause of pregnancy-related deaths. They accounted for 23% of those deaths from 2017 to 2019. Hemorrhage was second, at about 14%. (Psychiatric News)

The most recent data, from 2022, puts mental health conditions at 27.7% of pregnancy-related deaths, still the leading cause overall. (Maternal Mental Health Leadership Alliance)

And the CDC found that four in five pregnancy-related deaths could have been prevented. (FOX 7, reporting on the CDC)

Pregnancy-related deaths include the full year after birth, long after the hospital screening and the six-week checkup. That year is exactly when many mothers are on their own.

This is what decades of not studying, not naming, and not building care adds up to.

This is why.