Aspects Summer 2019 | SIU School of Medicine

Maternal Matters

A mother's mortality

Giving birth in the United States has gotten riskier in the last 25 years. Caregivers and lawmakers want to reverse this troubling trend.

The current generation of new moms in America face a higher risk of dying during childbirth than their mothers did 25 years ago. About 700 American women die each year from pregnancy complications and about 70 percent of these deaths are preventable.

According to a 2018 report from the Illinois Department of Public Health the following were found about maternal deaths:

From 2008-2016, an average of 73 women died within one year of pregnancy in Illinois.
In Illinois, non-Hispanic black women are six times as likely to die of a pregnancy-related condition as non-Hispanic white women.
In Illinois, 72 percent of pregnancy-related deaths and 93 percent of violent pregnancy-associated deaths were deemed preventable by the review committees.
Obesity contributed to 44 percent of pregnancy-related deaths in Illinois in 2015.

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FEATURE

One decade, 5,000 babies

In the last 10 years, SIU’s Fertility and IVF Center has become the preferred option for couples dealing with infertility. In that time, the center has maintained a reputation for superior quality patient care and a state-of-the-art embryology laboratory.

FEATURE

Medicine meets mayhem

When family medicine physician Tabatha Wells, MD, Class of 2009, isn’t treating patients or advocating for women’s rights, you might find her at the local skating rink. She started roller derby, a contact sport played on roller skates, with Springfield’s Midstate Mayhem in 2012.