Polling & Global Attitudes Dashboard

The world protects new mothers. The U.S. mostly doesn't.

Across twelve high-income peer nations, the United States records the highest maternal death rate, the least generous paid leave policy, and one of the thinnest maternity care workforces — a gap that widens sharply for Black mothers.

Dashboard by Samira Ray · DSC/330 Data Communication and Visualization for Business · Data current through 2025

U.S. maternal deaths per 100,000 births

4.2× the 5.3 peer-country average (2022)

Deaths per 100,000 among Black mothers

9.3× the peer-country average

Weeks of paid maternity leave, federal

vs. 18.4-week OECD average

Maternity providers per 1,000 births (workforce supply)

Peer-country average is 57

Where the U.S. stands

The U.S. death rate is highest — and the racial gap inside it is wider still

Maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, 2022, ranked from lowest to highest. The United States overall (dark) sits above every peer nation; broken out by race and ethnicity, the rate for Black mothers is more than double the U.S. average.

Peer country United States (overall) U.S. subgroup by race/ethnicity

Source: Gunja et al., 2024, The Commonwealth Fund, using OECD Health Statistics 2023 and CDC National Vital Statistics data.

When deaths occur

Most U.S. maternal deaths happen after the delivery-day headlines end

Only 13% of U.S. pregnancy-related deaths happen on the day of delivery. Nearly two-thirds occur in the days, weeks, and months of postpartum recovery that follow — well past the point where most clinical follow-up stops.

Source: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2023, citing CDC pregnancy-related mortality surveillance data, 2017–2019.

The policy gap

The U.S. is the only peer nation with no guaranteed paid leave

Weeks of paid maternity leave by country. The dashed line marks the 18.4-week OECD average — every peer nation meets or exceeds it except the United States, which offers zero weeks at the federal level.

Source: OECD Family Database, PF2.1: Parental Leave Systems, 2025.

The workforce gap

The U.S. leans on ob-gyns where other countries lean on midwives

Ob-gyns and midwives per 1,000 live births. The U.S. and Canada field the smallest maternity care workforce of any peer nation — and are alone in having more ob-gyns than midwives.

Ob-gyns per 1,000 births Midwives per 1,000 births

Source: Tikkanen et al., 2020, The Commonwealth Fund, using OECD Health Statistics, 2018 or latest available year. Figures are national provider headcounts relative to annual birth volume (a workforce-supply ratio), not a one-provider-per-birth count.

The story this dashboard tells

Four charts, one throughline: the U.S. spends more on healthcare than any peer nation, yet gives new mothers less protection at nearly every stage — before birth, during recovery, and in the workforce meant to support them.

The throughline is policy, not chance. Countries with the lowest mortality rates also guarantee the most paid leave and field the deepest midwifery workforce. The U.S. sits at the bottom of both lists — and its highest-risk group, Black mothers, absorbs the largest share of that gap.

The U.S. maternal death rate is 4.2× the peer-country average, and the gap for Black mothers is more than double the U.S. average itself.

65% of U.S. maternal deaths happen after the day of delivery — during the recovery window paid leave and postpartum visits are meant to cover.

The U.S. is the only country studied with zero weeks of guaranteed paid maternity leave, 18 weeks short of the OECD average.

With just 15 providers per 1,000 births, the U.S. maternity workforce is roughly a quarter the size of the peer-country average.