Now more dangerous to give birth in California than it is in Kuwait or Bosnia, a recently-released report shows.

California maternal mortality

Slate – Pregnancy is still safe for the vast majority of women, but the results of a recently released report from the California Department of Public Health are cause for concern: The past decade has seen the most “significant spike in pregnancy-related deaths since the 1930s,”

California Watch reported. “The mortality rate of California women who die from causes directly related to pregnancy has nearly tripled in the past decade, prompting doctors to worry about the dangers of obesity in expectant mothers and about medical complications of cesarean sections.”

The problem, it turns out, may be occurring nationwide. An alert issued last week to hospitals by the Joint Commission, the leading health care accreditation and standards group in the country, warned, “Unfortunately, current trends and evidence suggest that maternal mortality rates may be increasing in the U.S.” “The alert asked doctors to consider morbid obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes, along with hemorrhaging from C-sections, as contributing factors,” California Watch reported.