Most pregnancy-related deaths in WA are preventable, report finds

About 100 women died in Washington state as a result of their pregnancies between 2014 and 2020, according to a new report by the state health department.

The vast majority — 80% — of those deaths were preventable, the report said.

Washington’s maternal mortality rates are lower than the national average, but they’re high among Native American and Black women, and they’re getting worse as time goes on.

“We are troubled by the vast disparities we see in our state by race/ethnicity,” said Lacy Fehrenbach, chief of prevention at the state health department.

About 40% of the deaths happened the day of delivery or within the first six weeks. Common causes were hemorrhage and infection.

A third of the pregnancy-related deaths happened after six weeks but within the first year of delivery, usually due to suicide or accidental overdose.

Fehrenbach said, over the past several years, the state has launched programs that aim to improve maternal health: “Increasing access to doula care, expanding Medicaid coverage to one year postpartum, establishing community-rooted initiatives to address birth outcomes.”

Those programs include support services for certain communities, including Black families in King County, Pacific Islander families in Pierce County, and several tribes.

But Fehrenbach said more work is needed: anti-bias training for providers, making sure families’ basic needs are met, and screening everyone for perinatal mood disorders like postpartum depression.

Black people were more likely to experience perinatal mood disorders than other groups but less likely to receive care and treatment for them, the report said.

Problems with the quality of medical care contributed to about two-thirds of pregnancy-related deaths, and a lack of behavioral health screening contributed to about half of them, the report said. Discrimination was a factor in about 40% of the deaths.

To prevent these deaths, the state should expand access to quality perinatal care and address structural racism and inequities, the report concluded.