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U.S. rates remain high despite proven ways to prevent maternal deaths and injuries, experts say — things like ensuring quality medical care at delivery; getting to know patients; addressing issues like addiction or poor nutrition; and providing care and support after the baby is born.One of the most important things is making sure everyone can get regular prenatal checkups, which requires having enough health care providers.

Consider Norway, which has the lowest maternal mortality rate in the world: zero. Through its universal health care system, people get free prenatal appointments at health centers near their homes. And like Sweden, Germany, France and the U.K., it has a robust supply of midwives.For every 1,000 live births, Norway has 13 OB-GYNs and 54 midwives, thefound, compared with 12 OB-GYNs and four midwives in the U.S. The

deems more than a third of American counties maternity care deserts and recommends integrating and expanding midwifery in all states.Regular care — for every pregnant person, no matter their financial or legal status — means problems are spotted and treated early, said Roosa Sofia Tikkanen, a doctoral candidate at the Center for Global Health Inequalities Research in Norway. She said immigrants lacking permanent legal status are entitled to the same prenatal care as others, plus translation services if necessary.

“Maternal mortality is an entirely preventable event providing you have access to basic health care,” Tikkanen said. “Not high-tech health care but basic health care.”

What happens during and after delivery also makes a difference. The national rate for cesarean sections, which are more likely than vaginal births to lead to complications, is about 16% in Norway and 32% in the U.S.PIgs stand in pens at the Revivicor research farm near Blacksburg, Va., on May 29, 2024, where organs are retrieved for animal-to-human transplant experiments. (AP Photo/Shelby Lum)

The main challenges: how to avoid rejection and whether the animals might carry some unknownThe process starts with modifying genes in pig skin cells in a lab. Revivicor initially deleted a gene that produces a sugar named

, which triggers immediate destruction from the human immune system. Next came three-gene “knockouts,” to remove other immune-triggering red flags. Now the company is focusing on 10 gene edits — deleted pig genes and added human ones that together lessen risk of rejection and blood clots plus limit organ size.They clone pigs with those alterations, similar to how Dolly the sheep was created.