Abstract

The US maternal health crisis disproportionately affects Black women, who in Texas face double the likelihood of Severe Maternal Morbidity (SMM—near misses for maternal death during labor and delivery) compared to White women. Using 2016-2022 Texas hospital discharge data, this study finds that preexisting health conditions explain up to 78 percent of the Black-White SMM gap. The remaining unexplained gap is 18-20 percent across and within hospitals, even among women attended by the same physician. Over the study period, health disparities appear to have remained stable. Overall, the findings underscore the critical need for prioritizing women’s health well before childbirth hospitalization. 

This report is a synopsis of a longer study, which is accessible online at SSRN.com.