美国孕妇与初产妇死亡率上升

A recent study found a disturbing rise in the number of deaths among pregnant women and new mothers during the pandemic, and not just because of complications from pregnancy and childbirth.

最近的一项研究发现，疫情期间孕妇与初产妇的死亡人数上升，令人不安，死因不仅仅是怀孕与分娩的并发症。

The report by "The Journal of the American Medical Association" found that, from 2019 to 2020, there were 4,535 deaths among pregnant women and new mothers.

《美国医学会杂志》的这份报告发现，从2019年到2020年，孕妇和初产妇中有4535人死亡。

That was up from 1,588 deaths pre-pandemic.

死亡人数高于疫情前的1588人。

Native American women faced the greatest risk by far during this period.

在这一时期，美洲土著妇女面临的风险最大。

They were three-and-a-half times more likely to die than white women.

她们的死亡率是白人女性的3.5倍。

To better understand what's driving this increase, I recently spoke with Jessica Whitehawk, the founder of the Ttawaxt Birth Justice Center on the Yakama Nation Reservation in Washington state.

为了更好地了解推动死亡人数增长的原因，我最近与杰西卡·怀特霍克进行了交谈，她是华盛顿州雅卡马民族保留地塔瓦克斯特出生司法中心的创始人。

Jessica Whitehawk, welcome to the "NewsHour."

杰西卡·怀特霍克，欢迎来到“新闻一小时”。

And thank you for joining us.

感谢你参加本次节目。

Let's just begin with, knowing what about maternal care for Native women going into the pandemic, did you expect to see these kinds of increases?

让我们先来了解一下，疫情期间美洲土著妇女的孕产妇保健护理情况，你预料到会有这样的增长吗?

Yes, when we went into the pandemic, our team knew that there was going to be a lot of issues that were going to be revealed and intensified.

是的，当我们开始研究疫情时，我们的团队知道将会有很多问题被揭露、愈演愈烈。

But we didn't quite understand until it started -- until we started seeing it now, what it actually was going to be.

但直到我们现在开始注意到这个增长，我们还是不太明白。

But we did anticipate it, yes.

不过，我们确实预料到了，是的。

Tell me why. Why did you anticipate that increase going in?

告诉我为什么。你为什么预料会有这样的增长?

For many years, and, historically, we have had really high infant and maternal mortality rates.

纵观历史，我们的婴儿和产妇死亡率这么多年来一直很高。

And as public health crisis such as a pandemic happens, we know that, in general, that the populations that are already struggling were going to struggle even more.

随着如疫情这样的公共卫生危机发生，我们知道，一般来说，已经在苦苦挣扎的人群将会挣扎得更厉害。

And so that's -- that was a fear that we had when the pandemic began.

这就是疫情之初我们的担忧。

So tell us about those struggles.

给我们讲讲这些挣扎的人们吧。

What does prenatal and postnatal care look like for most of the women that you serve?

你所服务的大多数妇女的产前和产后护理是什么样子的？

For most of the women that we serve, they are experiencing health care through federally qualified health care systems, which have very limited office visit time, and the care that's provided is subpar.

对于我们所服务的大多数妇女来说，她们是通过合格的联邦医疗保健系统接受医疗保健服务的，这些系统的门诊时间非常有限，所提供的医疗服务也低于平均水平。

During a prenatal visit, they often only have three to seven minutes per visit,

在产前检查期间，她们每次检查通常只有三到七分钟，

which isn't enough time to be able to ask questions and understand what's going on with your body or even for a doctor to understand what complications or what additional things are needed beyond prenatal care.

这段时间不足以让孕妇问问题，了解她们的身体状况，甚至不足以让医生了解除了产前护理之外，还需要注意哪些并发症或其他病症。

And, Jessica, I found it interesting, in the report, they found pregnant and recently pregnant Black women also faced an increased risk.

杰西卡，我发现有趣的是，在报告中，他们发现怀孕和刚怀孕的黑人女性也面临着更高的风险。

Their odds of death were double those of white women in this period they were looking at.

在他们研究的这一时期，黑人女性的死亡几率是白人女性的两倍。