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published the report Maternal Mortality in New York City, which was commissioned by the Commonwealth Fund and detailed the appalling rate of maternal mortality in childbirth, estimated to be as many as 25 000 deaths annually in the United States.This report found that two-thirds of these deaths were deemed preventable and that the leading culprits were the attendant physicians.Annual maternal mortality rates in European countries were also very high by today's standards, but substantially lower than the US rates (eg, 235 and 242 per 100 000 live births in 1920 for Denmark and the Netherlands, respectively, compared with 689 per 100 000 in the United States). 2 Following the New York City report, there was a marked and sustained decrease in maternal mortality in the United States and other Western countries, with rates stabilizing at approximately 37 per 100 000 live US births in the 1960s, which was virtually identical to the
Rivara et al. (Wed,) studied this question.