Abstract
Maternal mortality is among the most preventable deaths, which can act as a precise indicator of the quality of healthcare in the region. Although the global trend has been showing steady and gradual improvement throughout the years, there are still several regions where spikes can be observed. One can pinpoint a wide range of potential causes that contribute to an increase in maternal mortality rate, but the main reason lies within the quality of the healthcare system itself. The lack of healthcare access and early diagnostics need to be factored in as the key features of poor healthcare.
Healthcare Quality
It is important to note that high maternal mortality rates can be prevalent in both developing and developed nations. Certain states and cities in the United States, such as Texas and Washington D.C., have shown an upward trend regarding the issue (MacDorman et al., 2016). In other words, the U.S is one of the top economically prosperous countries on the globe, but it still fails to provide high-quality healthcare to its citizens. Despite having a strong and capable infrastructure, many individuals have no access to such a service. Unmet health care needs are defined as the difference between the services considered necessary to adequately address health problems and the services received and are seen as simple tools to control access and inequities in health use.
The main cause of the issue in all nations is the lack of healthcare access, despite the difference in technical factors. In developed countries, maternal mortality is caused by medical reasons, and in developing countries, by poor ecology, malnutrition, and low levels of education (Woodbury, 2017). The level of quality of life in the region determines what share in the structure of medical mortality belongs to such reasons as bleeding or sepsis. The first place among the causes of maternal mortality in countries with a high standard of living and high-tech healthcare is taken by predictable complications of childbirth and extragenital pathology. The main predictors of maternal mortality are not obstetric manipulations, but serious somatic diseases (Woodbury, 2017). Among the unfavorable outcomes of childbirth are complications of the birth act due to existing chronic problems. To reduce the number of adverse outcomes in obstetrics, it is necessary to optimize the process of managing patients in antenatal clinics. Thus, there is no doubt about the acute social significance of the problem of the quality of the provision of obstetric and gynecological care and the need for its prompt and effective solution.
Racial and Ethnic Factors
The argument that the maternal mortality rate is the result of poor healthcare service is also supported by the fact regarding minority groups. Black women are disproportionately more likely to die during pregnancy and birth compared to White women (Lister et al., 2019). Minority groups are the primary victims of the inaccessibility of healthcare in the United States. Socioeconomic disparity plays a major role in the issue alongside other factors, but the fact that the members of African American communities generally possess fewer resources to afford higher quality healthcare means that the healthcare system in the country is overall poorer. The level of maternal mortality is one of the main criteria for the socio-economic development of society, the quality and level of organization of the work of obstetric institutions, and the effectiveness of the implementation of scientific advances in health care practice.
Early Intervention
Healthcare accessibility is the main cause of high maternal mortality because women die due to undergoing pregnancy or giving birth, which is accompanied by chronic issues. It is stated that pregnancy or birth complications occur because of certain medical conditions, such as cardiovascular diseases (Creanga et al., 2017). These problems are preventable through early diagnostics and interventions, which can prepare a woman for the process of giving birth. In the worst-case scenario, a woman might be given information about the risks, where the solutions can be either terminated or continued under strict monitoring. However, an individual cannot take such precautions because she is not able to consult with medical experts due to the inaccessibility of the healthcare system.
In healthcare, forecasting is the most important function of management, since the cost of errors in making management decisions can be the health and lives of tens and hundreds of thousands of people. The logic of building a forecast differs significantly from the procedural approaches of diagnostic insight. The problem of making a diagnosis has the only correct solution, while in predicting the outcome of a disease, the options for the development of events are determined by many factors. Verification that evaluates the reliability of a forecast decides whether it is true or false (Woodbury, 2017). Any prediction has some degree of uncertainty and must be assessed before decisions are made to alter the outcome. The task is to maximize the reliability of the forecast, then minimize the possible deviations of the forecast estimates from the actual ones. The prognosis is inextricably linked with the concepts of sensitivity, specificity, false positive, and false-negative results.
Counterargument and Rebuttal
One can argue that the high maternal mortality rate among American women is not due to healthcare quality, but rather due to pre-existing medical conditions of the target population. The cause of death is indeed due to complications during birth and pregnancy. It is stated that pregnancy-related deaths are primarily influenced by cardiovascular conditions alongside cardiomyopathy, hemorrhage, and infections (Creanga et al., 2017). Therefore, it is possible to assume that the overall weak health of an individual woman is the key reason. However, one should be aware that timely healthcare access is the most critical factor that determines the proper management of any chronic issue (Sav et al., 2015). In other words, women with certain medical conditions need accessible healthcare to avoid complications, which can manifest themselves later as instances of maternal mortality.
In conclusion, the high maternal mortality rate is directly caused by a poor healthcare system, which is either inaccessible or low quality in general. The problem is not solely observed among developing nations because certain developed countries, such as the U.S., also possess a high mortality rate. The argument is supported by the fact that the issue is the most prominent among African American women, who have a lower degree of access to the nation’s healthcare system. Although one could argue that the reason lies in the medical conditions and the weak health of an individual, it is important to understand that the management of such chronic diseases is also reliant on healthcare accessibility. Therefore, all nations need to make the healthcare system accessible to women to eliminate this easily preventable cause of death. The problem of maternal mortality continues to remain relevant and requires attention to the development of measures to reduce it. The latter needs to take into account socio-economic development and the level of development of medical care.
References
Creanga, A. A., Syverson, C., Seed, K., & Callaghan, W. M. (2017). Pregnancy-related mortality in the United States, 2011-2013. Obstetrics and Gynecology, 130(2), 366-373. Web.
Lister, R. L., Drake, W., Scott, B. H., & Graves, C. (2019). Black maternal mortality-The elephant in the room. World Journal of Gynecology & Women’s Health, 3(1), 1-5. Web.
MacDorman, M. F., Declercq, E., Cabral, H., & Morton, C. (2016). Recent increases in the U.S. maternal mortality rate: Disentangling trends from measurement issues. Obstetrics and Gynecology, 128(3), 447-455. Web.
Sav, A., McMillan, S.S., Kelly, F. King, M. A., Whitty, J. A., Kendall, E., & Wheeler, A. J. (2015). The ideal healthcare: Priorities of people with chronic conditions and their carers. BMC Health Services Research, 15, 1-10. Web.
Woodbury, R. M. (2017). Maternal mortality: The risk of death in childbirth and from all diseases caused by pregnancy and confinement. Forgotten Books.