n more perplexing in that the Healthy People 200 initiative is even weighted to reduce the rate of black maternal mortality to a higher level than the 3.3 for whites at 5.4. Perhaps even more confounding, the study found that different states had different rates of maternal mortality for black women that were even higher than the national average. New York and Florida were two states with the highest rate of black maternal mortality per 100,000, “In New York, the study found 28.7 black women die for every 100,000 who give birth…black women in Florida had a death rate of 24.8 per 100,000 births” (Stolberg 13A; Beitsch 1).
Race and ethnicity alone do not seem to resolve the wide disparity between white and black maternal mortality rates. However, some researchers believe black women are at a higher risk of maternal mortality because the complications from pregnancy, like diabetes and high blood pressure, are already disease black women are more susceptible to than white women, “Preg
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