Homicide and Violence Against Pregnant Women
The new issue of the American Journal of Public Health includes U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) study: "Homicide: A Leading Cause of Injury Deaths Among Pregnant and Postpartum Women in the United States, 1991-1999".
The study found that homicide was the second leading cause of maternal death (i.e., of women who were pregnant or within one year post-partum), accounting for 31% of maternal deaths, second only to automobile accidents (44%). The authors note that the data may represent a significant underestimate because many states do not have reliable approaches fortracking such killings.
617 (8.4%) homicide deaths were reported to the Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance System. The pregnancy-associated homicide ratio was 1.7 per 100,000 live births. Risk factors included ages younger than 20 years, Black race, and late or non prenatal care. Firearms were the leading mechanism for homicide (56.6%).
The conclusions are that homicide is a leading cause of pregnancy-associated injury deaths.
Source: CDC, 25.2.05.
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