Atlanta, Georgia - Maternal deaths in the US increased by a shocking 40% in 2021, according to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Per the new CDC report, 1,205 people died of maternal causes in the US in 2021, compared to 861 in 2020. Health experts attribute this significant increase of 40 percent to the coronavirus pandemic, as multiple outlets have reported.

According to the World Health Organization, maternal death is defined as a death that takes place during pregnancy or within 42 days following delivery.

In countries other high-income countries like Austria and Japan, the number of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births hovers around 1 or 2. In the US, the number is shockingly higher: 32.9 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, per NPR. That's more than ten times the estimated rates of other high-income countries.

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The last time the maternal death rate was that high was in 1964, as the Associated Press reported.

Health experts like, Eileen Crimmins, a professor of gerontology at the University of Southern California, told NPR: "There is just no reason for a rich country to have poor maternal mortality,"

She, like many others, attributed the 2021 spike to the coronavirus pandemic and hopes that it was the apex. A separate report by the Government Accountability Office has cited Covid-19 as a contributing factor in at least 400 maternal deaths.

Other experts worry that current economic and political trends across the country could continue to make these figures worse.

For example, the closing of rural maternity wards and abortion restrictions that delay care for pregnancy complications could increase the number of maternal deaths.

The CDC's report on maternal mortality in 2021 also found that the maternal death rate among Black Americans was much higher than other racial groups. In 2021, it was 69.9 per 100,000, which is 2.6 times higher than the rate for White women.

Dr. Veronica Gillispie-Bell, an OB-GYN at Ochsner Health in Louisiana who investigates maternal deaths, told NPR, that social factors, not biological ones, are to blame for the racial difference. She said, "We have to address the social factors that either are barriers to accessing care or that make your medical conditions worse coming into the pregnancy," she says.

"This is not just about doctors in the hospital."

The preliminary CDC numbers for 2022, show that there were 733 maternal deaths, per the Associated Press. The actual number is probably higher. Though the number of maternal moralities appears to be lower in 2022, that just means the rate is still woefully high in the United States.

Maybe the most disturbing thing to know about these deaths is that according to the CDC's latest compilation of data, 84% of pregnancy-related deaths in the US were classed as preventable.