MORE AFRICAN-AMERICAN WOMEN DIE WHILE PREGNANT

Black women are three times more likely than whites to die from pregnancy complications, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said today. Federal officials blame the widening gap on the rising costs of quality healthcare. The new report, says TIME health care expert Janice Castro, underscores the importance of prenatal care: "There is no reason why so many American mothers should die of complications today. Better nutritional guidance and prenatal care would go a long way to saving mothers' lives as well as ensuring that babies are born healthy." One indicator: the incidence of maternal deaths as a result of pregnancy is only 2 percent of what it was in 1940.Post to Health & Medicine "Fixing the Health Care System."Search Past Issues "Pregnancy."