Study finds minority women have greater chance of dying during childbirth than white women.

Byline: Julie Sevrens Lyons and Lisa M. Krieger

SAN JOSE, Calif. _ Black women and Asian and Hispanic immigrants have a dramatically greater chance of dying during pregnancy or childbirth than white women, according to a federal study released Thursday.

The report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides the first clear look at how childbirth-related deaths vary by ethnicity. Its findings on death rates for black women _ which are four times higher than those for whites _ were especially startling to researchers, who said they could not fully explain them.

Also surprising was the fact that the high death rates among Asian and Latino women disappear in the second generation: U.S.-born members of both groups die about as often in pregnancy or childbirth than do their white counterparts. Those conclusions led some health experts to question whether efforts to provide health care to immigrant women are working.

"It's a shame given the health care that is available in this country," said Dr. Dorothy Furgerson, medical director of Planned …