To Keep Women From Dying In Childbirth, Look To California

Complicated, high-risk deliveries in the United States often end tragically. An American woman is three times as likely to die from childbirth as a woman in Canada, and six times as likely as a woman in Scandinavia. It's a story NPR and ProPublica have heard repeatedly over the last year while investigating the startling rate of maternal death in America. But despite her risk factors, Kane had something going for her that made her delivery less likely to go wrong: She lived – and gave birth – in California.