Mental illness, particularly substance abuse, was the biggest contributing factor to 74 pregnancy-related deaths of New Mexico mothers between 2018 and 2023, according to new data presented Monday to a legislative health committee.
New Mexico Department of Health officials presented the most recent figures from the department’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee, a board tasked with investigating all deaths that occur during or within one year of pregnancy and recommending measures to prevent such deaths in the future.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, New Mexico’s maternal mortality rate is well above the national average. Still, the new data shows that New Mexico’s pregnancy-related mortality rate has dropped precipitously since the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2021, the state’s pregnancy related-mortality rate — was 149.6 per 100,000 live births. By 2023, however, the rate decreased by nearly 84% to just 24.2, according to the new data.
The rate the New Mexico Mortality Review Committee measures is the number of people who die due to pregnancy complications or from health conditions a pregnancy exacerbated.
The decline brought levels back to pre-pandemic rates. Nonetheless, the review committee noted that more than 97% of the 74 deaths in that six-year period were “preventable.”
The report identifies mental illness as the biggest factor underlying those deaths, a term that includes includes suicide, substance abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder, among other psychiatric illnesses.
Mental illness accounted for nearly 42% of the deaths, followed by infections at roughly 16% and heart-related illnesses and hemorrhages or other injuries that each caused approximately 10% of the deaths.
“Mental health conditions, especially substance use disorders, remain the most significant contributing factor to maternal mortality and the most common underlying cause of death,” NMDOH Chief Medical Officer Miranda Durham told lawmakers.
The review committee also determined that more than three-quarters of the patients who died in that period had no prenatal care or unknown prenatal care, according to the new data. Kevin Peine, executive director at the NMDOH’s Centers for Public Health, noted that the rate of deaths drops sharply even if patients receive prenatal care only in their first trimester.
“This drives home the point to me that access to prenatal care in the state is critical, and early prenatal care can be a driving factor towards some of those preventions,” he said.
Several Democratic lawmakers on the interim Health and Human Services Committee keyed in on the findings regarding lack of prenatal care and substance abuse to criticize Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s 2025 order requiring state officials to take immediate custody of newborns with fetal alcohol syndrome or drug exposure.
Committee Chair Rep. Liz Thomson (D-Albuquerque) said she fears that mothers with drug addictions will opt out of prenatal care to avoid losing custody of their babies.
“That’s really scary to me, and something I think that we need to keep a close eye on,” she said.
State Sen. Linda Lopez (D-Albuquerque) also said the report shows the state’s resources would be better placed supporting mothers and babies exposed to drugs, rather than separating them. The report recommended expanding post-birth support, conducting additional screenings and expanding services to high-risk families in the period right before and right after birth.
“Separating a newborn from a new mom is trauma in itself,” Lopez said. “If we’re willing to separate and take away, then what is the state not doing to assist and help these new moms?”
Michael Coleman, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s communications director, did not respond to Source NM’s request for comment Monday, though he recently told Source NM that the governor stands behind the directive.
“The governor believes safety is the top priority — and that means giving parents the space they need to recover, while making sure no baby is left in a home where exposure puts them at risk,” he said.
