Maternal death rates in the 20th century


The death rate for women giving birth plummeted in the 20th century.

At the beginning of the century, maternal death rates were around their
historical level of nearly 1 in 100 for live births. The number today in the
United States is 1 in 10,000, a 99% decline.

The decline in maternal deaths has been due largely to better drugs and
medical procedures such as prenatal care, increased prenatal care, better
education, and the increase in expendable incomes to pay for all this.