Despite  economic development, nutrition, and the advanced medical technology that is available, many women in the U.S. continue to die in childbirth.  The U.S. ranks a dismal 50^th in maternal mortality – dead last in the developed world and behind numerous other countries, from Turkey and Saudi Arabia. About 1,000 women across the country die each year from pregnancy-related complications, a rate of 14.5 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2007, the most recent data available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In a blog post written for the Philadelphia Inquirer,  our Executive Director JoAnne Fischer and our Deputy Director Bette Begleiter discussed this alarming problem and how we can better prepare women in their  childbearing years for pregnancy.