The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and the Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance System (PMSS), both administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), produce national estimates.

NCHS, PMSS, and MMRCs each use a different definition related to deaths associated with pregnancy (the numerator for each respective ratio is different; refer to the Definitions page for more information).

MMRCs use a comprehensive process to identify every death that took place during pregnancy, childbirth, and the year postpartum. Further, PMSS and NCHS provide estimates based off information from vital records. Unlike MMRCs, they cannot point to specific factors that contributed to individual deaths or determine whether a death could have been prevented.

The process is a cycle to comprehensively identify, review, and analyze deaths during pregnancy, childbirth, and the year postpartum; disseminate findings; and act on results. The committee is a group of experts and stakeholders in maternal health that convene regularly to review deaths and identify key learnings and opportunities to prevent future deaths.

MMRCs operate at the state level because maternal mortality is rare. However, there are a few large city-level reviews.

MMRCs have existed in the United States for more than a century. In recent years, growing national awareness of maternal mortality created by advocates and increased investment in technical assistance and standard data collection and analysis by CDC and national partners paved the way for more MMRCs to get off the ground.

This program is the Enhancing Reviews and Surveillance to Eliminate Maternal Mortality (ERASE MM) initiative. Congress authorized the ERASE MM program through passage of the Preventing Maternal Deaths Act of 2018 (Pub.L. 115-344).