Data Files and Resources

• The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) has released public-use mortality data files for 2018 that include the full detail aggregated from death certificates.
• NCHS will soon release the restricted-use mortality data files dating back to 2015. Using these files, researchers will be able to make choices about how they code and calculate maternal deaths.
• Over the next year, NCHS will be releasing detailed data files from years before 2015.

Resources:

• Revisions of the U.S. Standard Certificates and Reports: NCHS periodically arranges a national consensus process that makes recommendations to the states on the content of birth and death certificates. In 2003, this consensus process recommended that all states add a standardized checkbox to improve the identification of maternal deaths. Physicians were instructed to check a box for a known pregnancy in defined timeframes before death.
• Maternal Mortality and Related Concepts pdf icon[PDF – 488 KB]
• See “Adjustment of Maternal Mortality Rates for Misclassification” for graphical representation of data from Series 3, Number 44: The Impact of the Pregnancy Checkbox and Misclassification on Maternal Mortality Trends in the United States, 1999-2017 pdf icon[PDF – 2 MB].
• See “Maternal Mortality by State, 2018 pdf icon[PDF – 228 KB]” for data on selected states
• Restricted-Use Vital Statistics Data
• CDC Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance System
• Pregnant? Validity of the Pregnancy Checkbox on Death Certificates in Four States, and Characteristics Associated with Pregnancy Checkbox Errorsexternal icon
• Press Release: First Data Released on Maternal Mortality in Over a Decade
• Statcast: New Release of 2018 Mortality Data and New Data on Maternal Mortality in the United States

Webinar: Final 2018 Mortality Data Release with a Special Highlight on Maternal Mortality

In this webinar, Dr. Amy Branum discusses the 2018 final mortality data release, maternal mortality data, and new accompanying reports. Detailed information is provided on reporting of maternal mortality statistics, how reporting has changed as states have added a pregnancy checkbox on their death certificates, changing in coding procedures, and the release of the first official national Maternal Mortality Rate since 2007.

Presentation Slides pdf icon[PDF – 2 MB]