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- Bill and Melinda Gates are preparing to unveil their annual letter for 2019.
- This year, Gates told Business Insider that one of the topics discussed would be the worrying upward trend of maternal deaths in the United States.
- Each year, 700 women die for reasons related to pregnancy or childbirth. The rate per 100,000 births is rising steadily and it is the worst of all developed countries.
The United States has the highest death rate among women during childbirth in all developed countries.
According to National Geographic, more than 700 women die each year as a result of pregnancy or childbirth. Black women have a death rate three times higher than white women during pregnancy or childbirth.
The maternal mortality rate in the United States has only worsened, according to a survey by NPR and ProPublica, while it is improving everywhere.
This alarming question weighs more and more on Melinda Gates, co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Organization.
Gates spends a lot of time advocating for gender equality and women's issues, from maternal health to improving workplace experiences. His foundation donated $ 280 million to the Global Financing Facility, which helps identify and address the health issues of women and children.
In an interview with Business Insider, Gates acknowledged that the rate of childbirth deaths in the United States is "incredibly disturbing". She added that she was considering taking into account the problem in the next annual letter from her husband and her husband for 2019. The letter and its contents have not yet been published.
Here is the relevant part of Gates' interview with Business Insider:
Alyson Shontell: The United States has the highest death rate among women at the time of birth in all developed countries, I believe. Here, more than 700 women die each year and black women have a death rate three times higher than white women. Do you think about maternal health in the United States?
Melinda Gates: These statistics are incredibly disturbing, so we're thinking about them.
Bill and I write a little bit about it in our annual letter this year. Many of these births have to do with premature birth, which occurs more often in African-American women. We need to explain why this happens. Are these barriers in their communities? Is it something genetic? Is it both? Is it stress?
We need to focus on that in the United States. So yes, we are looking at that.
To learn more about Gates' global health initiatives, on how his organization is fighting to keep millions of kids alive after the age of 5 and on the fact that we are on the verge of eliminating deadly diseases such as malaria and AIDS, check out our comprehensive interview with Melinda Gates.
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