Single parent
In the United States, 83% of single parents are mothers. Among this percentage of single mothers: 45% of single mothers are currently divorced or separated, 1.7% are widowed, 34% of single mothers never have been married. Although decades ago, having a child outside of marriage and/or being a single mother was not prominent. Census information from 1960 tells us that in that year, only nine percent of children lived in single parent families. Today four out of every ten children are born to an unwed mother.
Maternal health
In a September 2016 ACOG/SMFM consensus, published concurrently in the journal "Obstetrics & Gynecology" and by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), they noted that while they did not yet have a "single, comprehensive definition of severe maternal morbidity" (SMM), the rate of SMM is increasing in the United States as is maternal mortality. Both are "associated with a high rate of preventability."