Brazil saw the world’s highest numbers of Covid-19 deaths among pregnant and postpartum women in 2020, the first year of the pandemic. And these figures continued to rise, more than doubling in the following year. A total of 1,948 deaths, 1,488 in 2021 alone. The majority (59 percent) of the victims had no prior health conditions.
A Brazilian study published in The Lancet Americas sought to explore exactly what could justify the country’s elevated rates of maternal mortality. It showed that, in addition to the health system being unprepared to care for these women, medical teams prioritized saving the...
