THURSDAY, Feb. 22 (HealthDay News) -- Although U.S. stillbirths declined by 1.4 percent per year from 1990 to 2003 among all ethnic and racial groups, fetal mortality for black women is still more than double that for white women, according to a report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Marian MacDorman, Ph.D., of the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics in Atlanta, and colleagues reported that stillbirths declined among all groups between 1990 and 2003, but fetal mortality for non-Hispanic black women was 11.56 per 1,000 compared with 4.94 per 1,000 for non-Hispanic white women. The decline in fetal mortality occurred in pregnancies 20 weeks of gestation and longer.
The rate for American Indian/Alaska Native women was 6.09 per 1,000, 24 percent higher than that of non-Hispanic white women. Fetal death for Hispanic women was 5.46 per 1,000, slightly higher than the rate for non-Hispanic white women. Fetal death rate for Asian or Pacific Islander women was 4.98 per 1,000, similar to that of non-Hispanic white women.
"While we can certainly see progress has been made in preventing fetal mortality, it is also clear that disparities remain along race and ethnic lines," the MacDorman noted in a statement.
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