Maternal Mortality Rate Higher in the U.S. than in Canada

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A survey by the World Health Organization (WHO) finds women in the U.S. twice as likely to die from causes related to pregnancy than in Canada, Reuters reports.

Among Latinas the maternal mortality rate is at 8.9 deaths per 100,000 live births, slightly lower than among white non-Hispanic and Black non-Hispanic.

According to the survey, the U.S. is among the group of countries “to have worse rates of maternal mortality in 2015 than in 1990—a group that also includes North Korea, Zimbabwe and Venezuela.”

The U.N.’s goal is to get the global average of maternal deaths below 70 per 100,000 live births. The U.S. and other industrialized countries are way below that number, but in 2015 the U.S. average increased from 12 deaths to 14 deaths per 100,000 live births.

Finland, Iceland, Poland and Greece are among the safest places to have a baby—mortality rate is only 3 deaths per 100,000 live births.