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Infant mortality rate has gone significantly down since 1915. This probably due to lack of the level of medical care being received by expecting mothers as well as after giving birth. Along with medical care, technology was not as profound as it is now which can also help prevent deaths.

Regan Volack

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Home Births by U.S. State - Asher Anderson

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Home Births by U.S. State - Asher Anderson

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During my viewing of The Business of Being Born, I was really sold in the idea of home births. The film made it seem like a phenomenal alternative to hospital births, being safer, more comfortable, and more affordable. The film really piqued my interest in the subject, so this graph really caught my eye. My home state of Idaho has by far the highest rate of home births by state in the country. This graph indicates a couple things to me. First, there are lots of resources for learning about and carrying out home births in the state, making the process more approachable. Second, there is likely plenty of midwives and other experts in Idaho that are very experienced in giving home births, and should I have a partner go through with a home birth, we would be in very good hands.

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Pregnancy-Related mortality ratio by urban-rural classifications: 2017-2019  - Drevin Hall

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Pregnancy-Related mortality ratio by urban-rural classifications: 2017-2019  - Drevin Hall

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A fact that I found interesting was how maternal mortality was directly correlated to the type of area the mother lived in. It seems rather intuitive that mothers that live closer to hospitals would die less, but I thought it was interesting that the data confirmed it. I also thought it was intriguing that women who live in large metro areas died more than women who lived on the outskirts of the city. Maybe this is because the fringe areas of large cities are less crowded and may have quicker access to emergency medical care?

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59% of mothers who were able to stay home with their baby for as long as they wanted were able to breastfeed for as long as they would have liked while only 31% of mothers who were not able to stay with their baby as wanted were satisfied with duration of breastfeeding

I found this fact truly interesting, but also i'm not shocked by any means. It is so sad to me that many women aren't able to stay at home and cherish the beginning moments with their child for as long as they would like to. I feel like there is so much more that goes into pregnancy, labor and postpartum that being able to stay home for at least a year should be easily doable if that is what the mother wishes to do.

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C-Section Rates by States, Alyssa Orloff

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C-Section Rates by States, Alyssa Orloff

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I have always been curious about C-sections and what the rates of C-sections looks like across states. Some of the states with the highest C-section rates are: Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Texas. This was interesting to me because I noticed how these states are Southern states; I am curious about whether or not this has anything to do with a difference in culture. Now, some of the states with the lowest C-section rates are: Idaho, Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Wisconsin. Going back to the first fact, these states could all be considered Northern states; which again makes me curious and question on whether or not this has anything to do with the culture.

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In 2017, non hispanic black infants faced the highest mortality rate among other races in the United States. There were approximately 11 deaths for every 1,000 live births.

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As I read this article I became shocked at the rate in which women chose to give birth with a midwife. The part of the article that wasn't shocking was that mostly western and eastern states, as well as Alaska had higher percentages of midwife present births. Another portion of information that I found interesting was that in 2020 over two million births were still attended by Doctors of medicine, I found this shocking due to the fact that Covid-19 was still a present problem at that time. With that being said there was still over 300,000 midwife present deliveries. It was also stated in the article that many people would choose to do at home births with a midwife if they were covered by medical insurance.

Madeline Trumbo

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It' telling that 13% of mothers did not believe midwives could practice in hospitals. I wasn't aware of the scope of benefits with having a midwife present throughout a pregnancy, and I wonder how many mothers do not see one as a viable option. Considering how helpful they may be, it does seem important to spread awareness of their services.

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Vaginal Birth After Cesarean Section (VBAC) Skylar Shelton

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Vaginal Birth After Cesarean Section (VBAC) Skylar Shelton

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As I was reading this section of the website, I came across a fascinating fact: Idaho stands out as one of the states with a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) rate of 20% or higher, whereas the southern states have a much lower VBAC rate. What caught my attention further was the observation that many women who experienced a C-section for their first childbirth were hesitant about wanting a vaginal birth for their second child. It made me wonder why someone would think about doing this. As someone who hasn't yet experienced childbirth, I would personally prefer a vaginal birth over a C-section, especially for any future childbirths after that. I assume that mothers are apprehensive about a different birthing experience the second time around and prefer continuity with their first birth experience.

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I found it surprising how the rate of C-section births are increasing, and it's not just because of medical reasons or the health of the mother. There has been an increase in mothers choosing these, and from the graph above it shows that many are being pressured into having one. I also found it surprising that the rates of women who have natural births after c-sections are increasing. I thought this was heavily advised against, so the fact that since 2010 more women are doing it was interesting to me.

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Labor Induction By Medical Assistance- SAIDA LARA

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Labor Induction By Medical Assistance- SAIDA LARA

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I decided to share this graph. After all, as a mother when I gave birth I was also induced for my labor because I was 40 weeks pregnant and had no signs of giving birth. From this data, we can see the clear presentation that there is a higher risk of getting an induction from medical or hospital assistance than from other midwives. It's said by the article that midwives employ less interventionist models of care that cause lower induction rates.

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I explored the website, and when I looked at the numbers of live births vs. number of deaths I was astonished. In the entire year there was 3.7 million births, however 2.8 passed away. When you look more into this page, it talks about how  there was a big consideration of babies race and their death. However, now they look into the mothers race and babies death, because that is correlated. The article states that the mortality of black babies have been 2 times higher than those of white babies. This was interesting to me because I didn't think race would be a factor into mortality of babies.  

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The fact that surprised me from the website "Birth by Numbers" is that high cesarean rates are often wrongly blamed on women themselves. This misconception suggests that women's age, health status, weight, or personal preferences (such as requesting a cesarean) are the primary reasons for the high rate of cesarean deliveries. However, the website highlights that these factors are not the main factors of the cesarean rate. This challenges the common narrative that places too much responsibility and blame on women, indicating a need for broader understanding of the risk and protective factors contributing to cesarean births.

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Dawson Bjorgen

I thought this pie chart was really interesting. Here it shows the timing of maternal deaths, and the most surprising statistics to me was that mothers passed away far after the time of their birth. Added together, 53.3% of maternal deaths occur between 7-365 days. I originally thought that most deaths would be much sooner, as in 1-3 days. I wonder why this is? What are the complications of a mother who passes away 42 days after her birth, and is it a biological factor or not?

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While reading through the different topics and facts, breastfeeding stood out to me and specifically infants breastfed at discharge by Mothers age. The article mentioned how the peak rate in breastfeeding is in 30-34 with a decline after 35. However the decline from 30-34 to 35-39 was only a 2% decline which was shocking as I thought it would be a higher decrease in that age range. I was always presently surprised that in the range 40+ 68% of women still breastfed at discharge.

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An interesting fact I found in these slides, was the number of maternal deaths from 2019-2022. The part I wanted to point out was the spike in deaths during 2021. The other three years were relatively close in numbers, while 2021 was significantly higher. I wonder if the effects of COVID-19 had any correlation with the higher death rate. - Emily Sloop

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Infant Mortality by State-Taylor Lingscheit

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Infant Mortality by State-Taylor Lingscheit

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This map that looks at the rates of infant mortality surprised me. From our connect lessons we learned that the Black population and people living in poverty, tend to have a high percentage of infant mortality, this makes sense as to why the southern states have a higher rate. But what about South Dakota, South Dakota's poverty rate is 12.3% and the black population is very low, compared to Mississippi where the poverty rate is 19% and the black population is almost 40%. This raises the question of what are South Dakota mothers doing or what factors are contributing to the high infant mortality rates and could this be from the large Native American population in SD.

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I found an interesting fact to be the change in cesarean sections in different states throughout the years. I am interested to find out why certain states have much higher percentages of increasing c-sections than others. Are those hospitals pushing c-sections? Are c-sections more wanted/asked for in those states? For there to be a 14% increase in a matter of 30 years calls for some type of explanation. I also found it interesting that Idaho was on the list for the smallest change in percentage. I am excited to do more research on this and to find the reason behind it all.

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International Reports: Australia - Kobe Ma 

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International Reports: Australia - Kobe Ma 

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While looking through the website, I came across some interesting statistics and/or facts about mothers and childbirth in Australia. Since 2015, about 13% more women gave birth since 2005.

The mean age of mothers are giving birth later in life. In 2015, the average age for mothers who gave birth was 30.3 years and 29.7 years in 2005.

In 2015, two-thirds of mothers had a vaginal birth, while one-third of mothers had cesareans.

The rate of cesarean sections has increased over time. Since 2005, the cesarean section rate has increased by 3%.

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When looking at the breastfeeding category and the graph presented that shows the trend in rates ever breastfed, I was surprised at how high the percentage of breastfeeding rate was after 12 months of age. The percentage from 2010 to 2017 of breastfeeding infants over the age of 12 months increased from 25.3 percent to 35.3 percent. This data concludes that over one third of 12 month and older infants still remain breastfeeding in the U.S.

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Out of hospital birth rates - birthbynumbers.org

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Out of hospital birth rates - birthbynumbers.org

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Looking at this powerpoint really gave me some insight on how behind we are as a country when it comes to home births. The US and England have the lowest out of hospital birth rates. The Netherlands has one of the highest, at around 17%. The benefits of having births at home include, less stress for mom and baby, and since they are going natural, less risk for developing cognitive illnesses and disabilities. We have been shown time and time again how external factors affect babies. We need to take notes on what successful countries with higher birth rates are doing. I liked looking at the home birth percentages per state. Idaho had way more home births in 2022 than New York. It is interesting for me to see this data, as I have lived in both states. I am currently living in Florida where home birth rates are low and cesarean sections are extremely popular!

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Out of Hospital Births- Kendall Tacchini

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Out of Hospital Births- Kendall Tacchini

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While reading the website, I found it really interesting that the numbers for out of hospital birth by race was drastically different in the 1950's. The most shocking part was that the highest difference in white and non white out of hospital births was South Carolina at a 65% difference. The other shocking part was that the lowest state was West Virginia at a 33% difference. The over all difference came to a total of 35%. To me it was shocking because with the highest and lowest differences being below the Mason Dixon line I expected a higher difference in those states and the other states near by especially since segregation did not end until 1964.

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This figure shows the national rates of infant mortality by state as of 2017. Massachusetts was reported as having the lowest infant mortality rate (3.66 deaths per every 1,000 live births). The state with the highest infant mortality rates is Mississippi with a rate of 8.73 deaths per 1,000 live births. The goal to shoot for is 6 in 1,000 live births, that is considered low and standard. This can be attributed to the rurality of Mississippi, where some have less access to pre and postnatal care. It is also recorded and observed that black families experience higher rates of IMR than white people. This can be attributed to differing diseases among the black community, poor access to healthcare, and being less listened to by medical professionals on account of prejudice.

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One fact that surprised me was that maternal mortality rates has increased from 2018 to 2021. Looking at the data, it shows that it has increased from 17.4 to 32.9 for maternal mortality rates. For women of Non-Hispanic Black Origin, they have the highest mortality rates with 37.3 increasing to 69.9 per 100,000 births. For women of Non-Hispanic White origin, these rates have increased from a 14.9 to 26.6. For Hispanic women, these rates have increased from 11.8 to 28.0. This data surprised me because compared to other countries, these rates are about twice as much as other industrialized countries. I had no clue that these rates were higher than any other country.

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U.S. compared to other countries - Anthony Herrera

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U.S. compared to other countries - Anthony Herrera

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One fact i found surprising is that the U.S. has been historically last in terms of maternal mortality rates. Its not a close call either, the U.S. has been last by quite a big margin. The U.S. in 2000 had a maternal mortality rate double the average of other countries, and fell even further behind for the next twenty years. I never really thought that the U.S. would be lacking so bad. I think this deserves more attention.

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Vaginal Birth After Cesarean Section (VBAC) - Abigail Smith

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Vaginal Birth After Cesarean Section (VBAC) - Abigail Smith

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One fact that surprised me about this topic was that the South has the lowest VBAC rates which corresponds with higher cesarean section rates in the same demographic area. I have heard many mothers say that once they have had a c-section they will never go through a vaginal birth again or at all, but I hadn't realized there were statistics as wild as this one!

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Looking at all this data, I found it so interesting that the midwifery section has a hot map and a graphical analysis about midwives being at births per year in each state. From 1989 to 2019, you see a steady increase in births when midwives are attending and if the graph is true, we should still be climbing with the provided information. A lot of the states that have midwives that attend births are more located in the pacific northwest section of the United States with at least 13.70% per year. I thought it was also shocking to see that the population that Texas and Nevada has, they had no births where any midwife attended!

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Timing of Maternal Deaths (2017-2019) - Cade Smith 

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Timing of Maternal Deaths (2017-2019) - Cade Smith 

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Not necessarily a fun fact but wanted to put this out there showing when Maternal Deaths occur based on days after postpartum. What is sad to me is that we see 30% of the deaths can occur a month to a year after the birth was finished.

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Different Racial Births by Brooklyn Smith

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Different Racial Births by Brooklyn Smith

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One fact that surprised me from the website "Birth by the Numbers" is the significant disparity in maternal mortality rates among different racial and ethnic groups in the United States. According to the data, Black and Indigenous women are three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications compared to white women. This alarming disparity highlights the pervasive racial inequities within the U.S. healthcare system and underscores the urgent need for targeted interventions to address maternal health disparities. It is deeply concerning to see such stark differences in maternal outcomes based on race and ethnicity, indicating systemic issues that must be addressed to ensure equitable access to quality maternal care for all women.

Black women in the United States are 3 to 4 times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications compared to white women.

Indigenous women in the United States are 2 to 3 times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications compared to white women.

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I thought that it was interesting to see the percentages of home births by state. I was really surprised to see that Idaho was a state that was categorized as the highest percentage (3%+) based on the graph. My first thought was that because Idaho is a more conservative state, at home birth wouldn't be as popular. However, the data doesn't show a correlation between political views and percentage of home birth like I had originally thought.

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Out-of-Hospital Births and Infant Mortality - Madison Stark

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Out-of-Hospital Births and Infant Mortality - Madison Stark

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While reading through the different sections on this website. One that specifically grabbed my attention was the portion of out of hospital births in the U.S. from 1935-2022. I specifically was wondering if the trends for both, out of hospital births and infant mortality, aligned or if there was any sort of correlation between the two. In this time frame, there was a drastic drop from about 64% in 1935 to approximately 3% in 2022, as shown in the graph above.

Looking into the infant mortality statistics, it is noted that from the time span of 1980-2017 the infant mortality rates have also decreased significantly. This got me thinking about whether or not there is a correlation between an increase with in-hospital births and a decrease in infant mortality. Could this be a possible correlation to the fact that hospitals are better equipped for possible emergencies? Or could this be due to the evolution of medical practices and innovation with new medical technologies making medical personnel perform better? There could also be no correlation at all I just found it interesting that both these graphs show the same trends for similar time periods!

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Out of Hospital Birth Rates in Other Countries - Verena Wolf

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Out of Hospital Birth Rates in Other Countries - Verena Wolf

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It's interesting that the Business of Being Born film made it seem like the U.S. was the only country that had largely abandoned out of hospital births. I was surprised by this slide, which shows that it's become more of a trend in other developed countries as well. The declines in other countries seem to have occurred after the U.S., so I wonder to what extent America influenced the change. The slide noted that Japan's shift to hospital births was at least partially influenced by American occupation following WWII.

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One fun fact I found after visiting the website was that in 2018 there were 5.57 deaths for every 1000 live births in infants. Mississippi was the state with the highest IMR at 8.73 deaths for every 1000 live births and Massachusetts was the state with the lowest IMR of 3.66 deaths for every 1000 live births. I found these facts to be very interesting because 5.57 deaths for every 1000 seems like a lot and that is very scary how often infants can pass away from incidents at birth among other things.

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VBAC - Vaginal Birth After Cesarean Section 

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VBAC - Vaginal Birth After Cesarean Section 

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Christina Graham:

while looking through this specific section of the website I found it interesting that Idaho is one of the states that has a 20% or higher VBAC rate while the south has the lowest VBAC rates. I also found that many women who had a C-section for their first birth were hesitant to do a vaginal birth for their second child- which made me curious as to why? I have yet to give birth but for me I think I would rather have a Vaginal birth rather than a C-section especially twice. my thought is that maybe mothers are scared to experience a different type of birth the second time around and that they want their second birth to be similar to the first.

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After reading over the Cesarean Sections slideshow, I found it interesting that a portion of the slideshow was dedicated to news outlets 'takes' on c-sections. According to a study in the slideshow labelled as: "Is it Poor Health?", pregnancy induced hypertension was one of the leading health causes of a c-section. From 2007 to 2021, pregnancy induced hypertension doubled from 4% to 8% as the cause for women to need a c-section. Part of me also wonders if the pregnancy-induced hypertension had such a dramatic incline due to the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 (the rate of c-sections increased about 2% alone in 2019-2021). With that being said, pregnancy-induced hypertension is something that a woman cannot control which is why I was surprised by the news-outlets commentary. It's offensive to me that new outlets would take such a personal moment from a mother and judge their experience by making a c-section seem less 'less than' a vaginal birth.

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I found it really interesting that Idaho, Oregon, Montana, Colorado, and more states were among the highest for having a midwife attended birth. I wonder why these states have more midwife attended births than others. Is there less education regarding midwives in the midwest and south to explain the lack of midwife attended births in those states? It surprised me that Idaho was listed as one of the highest midwife attended birth states because I personally do not know anyone that had a midwife for their birth.

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Kailey Smith

In 2018 for every 1,000 live births there were 5.57 deaths in the United States.Throughout this time period, the US infant mortality rate for Black infants has historically remained over two times higher than that of White infants. As the rates have lower since the 1980's the number and gap between white and black babies is still greater then other countries.

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Out of Hospital Births by Giana Bellantoni

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Out of Hospital Births by Giana Bellantoni

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I found it super interesting that the percentage of home births by United States in 2022, Idaho was the largest at 4.2. Louisiana being the lowest at 0.3.

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In 2017, the third leading cause of infant mortality was maternal complications of pregnancy (37.2 deaths per 100,000 live births). This made me wonder after watching Business of Being Born if these maternal complications were due to doctors intervening in the pregnancy process.

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The national average for having a vaginal birth after a C-section is 13.9%

I found this surprising because I would expect less than 10% of the population to fall in this statistic. Also to note, in the southeast US the average is <13% as of 2020

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Makenna Moseley: I was shocked to learn that approximately 50.5% of births that occur in Korea are via cesarean section.