With the maternal mortality rate on the rise in the United States, it’s important to raise awareness at the community level and discuss possible solutions. Dr. Susan Stone, President Emerita, Distinguished Chair of Midwifery and Nursing at Frontier Nursing University, recently facilitated a conversation on this topic in Versailles, Ky., home to FNU’s campus, at the Woodford County Chamber of Commerce’s Health + Wellness Roundtable.
Held each month, these roundtable events bring community members together to facilitate conversations around health, wellness, aging, substance abuse, mental health and more. The discussion led by Dr. Stone revolved around maternal mortality on a national scale, current efforts in Kentucky and how members of the community can drive change.
View a summary of Dr. Stone's presentation in this video:
“Every effort that you make to improve health in your community makes a difference,” she said. “Maternal mortality is an indicator of the health of a community, a state and a country, and every small effort makes a difference.”
According to 2022 data from the CDC, more than 80% of pregnancy-related deaths in the U.S. from 2017-2019 were preventable by improving health care practices. Maternal mortality rates are alarmingly high for all women, with non-Hispanic Black women experiencing maternal mortality at more than 2.5 times the rate of white women.
Multidisciplinary Maternal Mortality Review Committees are investigating what has become a public health crisis, analyzing deaths that have occurred during pregnancy or up to one year postpartum. During pregnancy, some of the leading causes of death include hemorrhages or severe bleeding. At birth or shortly after, infections are a common mortality factor. During the postpartum period, death can occur due to heart muscle disease or mental health conditions.
Dr. Stone emphasized that efforts to combat maternal mortality should include a focus on preventive healthcare, not just on the care provided during childbirth.
“This is a long-term problem that we as healthcare providers in the community can work on,” she said.
According to the 2023 Maternal Mortality Review from the Kentucky Department for Public Health, 88 percent of maternal deaths in Kentucky were deemed preventable, with 58 percent of all deaths having substance use as a contributing factor. There were a total of 402 maternal deaths in Kentucky from 2013 to 2020, 191 of which were natural, 157 were accidental, 32 were due to homicide and 22 were due to suicide.
Major risk factors impacting maternal mortality in Kentucky include tobacco use, obesity, racial disparities, depression, substance use, and other social determinants of health, such as transportation, access to care and domestic violence.
“We need to care for people,” Dr. Stone said. “Not just medical care, not just obstetric care, but wraparound care.”
Dr. Stone highlighted the measures being taken in Kentucky, a state with a large rural population, to address this problem. The Kentucky Perinatal Collaborative, for example, serves as a statewide network working to improve the quality of care during pregnancy, delivery and throughout the first year of life. The organization works with healthcare providers, delivery hospitals, insurers, advocacy groups, national organizations, and other stakeholders dedicated to decreasing the rates of maternal mortality and neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) and improving maternal and infant health outcomes throughout the Commonwealth.
In addition, maternal health legislation known as “Momnibus” was passed by the Kentucky legislature earlier this year, expanding access to insurance coverage for pregnant women in the state, establishing a mental health hotline for mothers known as Lifeline for Moms, expanding the Health Access Nurturing Development Services (HANDS) program in the state and more.
The University of Kentucky also recently established the Kentucky Maternal Morbidity and Mortality Task Force, funded by a grant from the Health Resources and Service Administration.
Dr. Stone also discussed how community efforts can make a tangible difference in maternal mortality outcomes, highlighting the efforts of public health departments, food banks, transportation services, alcoholics anonymous programs and more.
FNU and the Campion Fund announced plans for a virtual conference focused on the nation’s maternal mortality crisis. The conference, “Reducing Maternal Mortality: Strategies That Work!”, will be held on Thursday, Sept. 19. Registration details are available at this link.
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