More women are becoming pregnant and giving birth to babies.

MILWAUKEE, CBS 58 — Each year, more women die from childbirth and pregnancy.

A new CDC Report details the U.S. maternal mortality statistics from 2018-2021.

Data shows that there are racial disparities.

“It was not surprising to me as we have seen over the years that Hispanic nonwhite and non-Hispanic Black mothers have had higher maternal deaths than their white counterparts. Dr. Michael Beninati, UW Health, said that the reason is still unknown.

Over 1,200 women died from maternal causes in 2021. Doctors believe this is an alarming increase over years.

“We’ve been following maternal health for several decades prior to the pandemic,” said Dr. Nicole Salvo OBGYN program Director, Aurora Health Care.

Dr. Nicole Salvo identifies increasing age, high rates of caesarean deliveries, chronic illness and limited access prenatal care as risk factors.

“We have discovered that there is a lot maternal death in this country,” Dr. Dr. Salvo.

Doctors emphasize that their primary goal is to educate and provide resources for patients’ minds.

Dr. Beninati stated, “I believe that we should be using as much time and resources to figure out – first, why it’s occurring – and second, what we can to move that trend in the right direction to Black patients as well,”

At the national level, legislators have started to introduce policies to address this issue.