JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) has published A Multi Year Look at Maternal Mortality in Missouri: 2017-2019 Annual Report on behalf of the state’s Pregnancy-Associated Mortality Review (PAMR) board. The report is an aggregate of three years’ worth of work of the PAMR and is based upon the most recent data available.
PAMR is a multidisciplinary board of experts from across the state tasked with examining the causes and contributing factors associated with maternal mortality and ultimately forming recommendations that could prevent these deaths from occurring in the future.
The 2017-2019 annual report contains data including the timing and leading causes of pregnancy-related deaths, and factors that contributed to these deaths, such as mental health conditions and substance use disorder (SUD). The report also reflects the disparities that exist in our state and among our most vulnerable populations, including our Black and publicly insured communities.
Report highlights include:
- Mental health conditions were the leading underlying cause of pregnancy-related deaths, followed by cardiovascular disease.
- All pregnancy-related deaths due to mental health conditions were determined to be preventable.
- Black women living in Missouri are three times more likely to die within one year of pregnancy than white women.
- Women on Medicaid in the state of Missouri are eight times more likely to die within one year of pregnancy than those with private insurance.
The PAMR board found that the pregnancy-related mortality ratio (PRMR) in Missouri was 25.2 deaths per 100,000 live births from 2017-2019 and that 75 percent of these deaths were determined to be preventable.
The PAMR board continues to review cases and is nearly finished reviewing 2020 deaths and will begin reviewing 2021 deaths soon after.
These reports will be made available once all cases have been reviewed. The 2017-2019 annual report can be viewed at Health.Mo.Gov/data/pamr.