Pregnancy-Related Deaths Are Up. Could Broadband Help?

With the introduction of a bill titled Data Mapping to Save Moms’ Lives Act in both the Senate and House of Representatives, some legislators believe high-speed Internet could make a difference for pregnant mothers. The bill would require information on maternal health to be included in the Federal Communications Commission’s Mapping Broadband Health in America initiative, which currently presents mapped correlations between broadband access and physician shortages, diabetes and obesity. This legislation would ideally bring more context to some troubling facts on maternal deaths in the United States, where, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, upwards of 700 women die annually “as a result of pregnancy or delivery complications.” Moreover, a 2017 report by NPR and ProPublica indicates that more US women perish for such reasons compared to women in every other developed country, and the number of fatalities has increased in the US over the last several years.