TOPLINE:

About two thirds of hospitalizations for delivery had at least one condition group — most often nonhereditary anemia, substance use, or hypertensive disorders of pregnancy — with prevalence varying by race and ethnicity.

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers conducted a cross-sectional analysis using hospital discharge data from a US database to identify which complications and conditions occurred commonly among hospitalizations for delivery.
• They analyzed over 6.8 million hospitalizations for delivery among women aged 12-55 years between January 2018 and December 2019, with at least 20 weeks of pregnancy.
• Complications and conditions were identified using diagnostic codes and grouped into 34 condition groups considering prevalence, clinical significance, and relevance to maternal health.
• The prevalence of the conditions groups was calculated by race and ethnicity.

TAKEAWAY:

• Overall, 65.5% of hospitalizations for delivery had at least one condition group. The most frequent condition groups were nonhereditary anemia (19.5%), substance use (12.5%), hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (12.5%), and obesity (12.0%).
• Any condition group was most common among Native American and Black patients (74.9% and 73.4%, respectively). Black patients had the highest prevalence of nonhereditary anemia, obesity, and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, followed by Native American patients.
• Gestational diabetes was highest in Asian or Pacific Islander patients (15.5%). Mental health conditions were highest in White and Native American patients (11.8% and 10.1%, respectively).
• Among the hospitalizations for delivery, 29.6% had only one condition group, 18.2% had two, and 17.7% had three or more. Native American and Black patients had the highest proportion of three or more condition groups.

IN PRACTICE:

“Most delivery hospitalizations in the United States had at least one documented condition group. Many of these condition groups are associated with adverse maternal outcomes,” the authors of the study wrote. “Differences in the quality of certain aspects of maternity (eg, person-centered, respectful, preventing harm and mistreatment) care may contribute to differences in maternal complications by race and ethnicity.” they added.

SOURCE:

This study was led by Lindsay S. Womack, PhD, MPH, from the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion at CDC in Atlanta. It was published online on October 31, 2025, in Obstetrics & Gynecology.

LIMITATIONS:

Coding practices varied across facilities, which may have introduced misclassification bias. Maternal age, parity, number of previous pregnancies, and comorbidities before pregnancy were not adjusted for. Certain racial and ethnic groups may have been underestimated.

DISCLOSURES:

No explicit funding source was mentioned for this study. One author disclosed that her institution received funding from the CDC. She reported serving as a consultant to CDC and that the CDC paid her university for a portion of her time.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.