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Homicide is a top cause of maternal death in the United States

Evaluation of death certificates from national database paints grim picture for pregnant women.
  1. Nidhi Subbaraman
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Pregnant women in the United States die by homicide more often than they die of pregnancy-related causes — and they’re frequently killed by a partner, according to a study published last month in Obstetrics & Gynecology1. Researchers revealed this grim statistic by using death certificates to compare homicides and pregnancy-related deaths across the entire country for the first time.

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Nature 599, 539-540 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-03392-8

Editor’s note: Nature recognizes that transgender men and non-binary people can become pregnant. We use ‘women’ in this story to reflect the language used in the study, which is based on death certificates that identify people only as men or women.

References

  1. Wallace, M., Gillispie-Bell, V., Cruz, K., Davis, K. & Vilda, D. Obstet. Gynecol. 138, 762–769 (2021).

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  2. Kivisto, A. J., Mills, S. & Eastwood, L. S. J. Interpers. Violence https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260521990831 (2021).

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