U.S. Black fetal deaths twice as high as white deaths: study

A wide disparity in fetal mortality continued during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, with Black mothers more than twice as likely to experience a fetal death at 20 weeks or more than white mothers, according to a new study.

While fetal deaths decreased by 5 percent for Black mothers between 2020 and 2021, their rates remained significantly higher than white mothers, according to the study published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday.

For Black mothers, the rate was 9.8 per 1,000 live births and fetal deaths in 2021, compared to white mothers' rate of 4.8, CDC data showed.

The first year of the pandemic, the rate for Black fetal deaths was 10.34 and in 2019 the rate was 10.41, all more than double the rate white and Hispanic mothers experienced.

Fetal mortality rates count deaths in gestation or stillbirths and do not include abortions or miscarriages. The CDC defines a miscarriage as a pregnancy loss before 20 weeks of gestational age.