Maternal deaths in the U.S. are staggeringly common. Personal nurses could help [npr.org]

This persistent tragic health/medical problem is the result of 2 pervasive, deep- seated American faults: RACISM and CAPITALISM. The racism is easy to spot because in almost all jurisdictions the Black maternal mortality is significantly higher than that of any other ethnic or racial group. Deficiencies in the medical system reinforce the politically tolerated and promoted socioeconomic deprivation of especially Black lives. Our medical care system is designed for profit not care and there are great political barriers to devoting responsibly needed medical resources to major health problems, be they maternal mortality or COVID, if there is no profit to be made.

On the other hand, there is good news in California. In spite of the fact that about 50% of all births in California are paid for by MediCal (that is, come from higher risk, impoverished families) over that past 10 years a public-private partnership  (The California Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance System), carefully monitoring every delivery and promoting common sense medical technology and public health interventions has brought Maternal Mortality (within 42 days) down to about 4 deaths/100,000 live births (est. in  2022) and all cause perinatal mortality (within one year) to 12.8 deaths per 100,000 live births (in 2018). Although there are still excess deaths among Black moms, these statistics are the best in the nation and world class. This is a clear demonstration that when public policy (followed by funding and resources) respects and cherishes ALL women the tragedy of mothers dying in childbirth can almost be eliminated. For current national data see Hoyert DL. Maternal mortality rates in the United States, 2020. NCHS Health E-Stats. 2022. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.15620/cdc:113967.