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Some time ago, when I was not yet a mother and still held a deep faith in American medicine, I attended a maternal health briefing at which the speaker presented a chart showing maternal mortality rates in the United States. I stared at it in disbelief: Surely the chart, which displayed a dismal trajectory, was upside down?

It wasn’t. And it forever changed the way I viewed the U.S. health care system.

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In the 10 years since, my disbelief has morphed into urgency and outrage. Maternal mortality rates in the U.S. have doubled since 2001, and they have increased 27% over five years. If you’re a non-Hispanic Black woman like me, you are five times more likely to die during childbirth than your white counterparts.

These disparities aren’t accidents or flukes. They are symptoms........

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