[Someone1234]

That was a rollercoaster. They make a good argument for why official stats are too high, and why the CDC's method is likely bad. Their alternative method shows that maternal death rate is likely around 10.4 per 100K (similar to other Western-style nations).

But then end with this nugget, using their alternative method:

> while Black women had the highest, 23.8 per 100,000 live births in 2018-2021

So more than double the national average.

[Auracle]

Maternal mortality goes up significantly with BMI: “The risk of maternal death increases with BMI; it multiplied by 1.6 in overweight women and more than tripled in pregnant women with severe obesity.”

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41366-020-00691-4

Black women are significantly more likely to be obese: “In 2018, African American women were 50 percent more likely to be obese than non-Hispanic white women.”

https://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/obesity-and-african-americans

[chimeracoder]

> > while Black women had the highest, 23.8 per 100,000 live births in 2018-2021

> So more than double the national average.

For what it's worth, the current-official CDC figures also state that Black maternal mortality rate is about 2.6 times the maternal mortality rate for non-Hispanic white. So both methods show a racial disparity of a similar magnitude.