Pregnancy-related deaths are highest in the first year of the pandemic
Today, Roberts is a co-founder of the Mississippi Reproductive Freedom Fund, an abortion rights organization, as a doula. Memories of his decades-old birth headaches were especially new last week when Mississippi House leaders removed a bill. to extend the postpartum Medicaid policy from the federal term from two months to one year after delivery.
The Associated Press reported that SB2033 was passed by the state Senate 46-5 last month and then passed by the House Medicaid Committee on March 1. — House Speaker Philip Gunn (R) and House Medicaid Committee Chairman Joey Hood (R) chose not to put it to a vote.
“As I’ve said very publicly, I oppose Medicaid expansion,” Gunn told the AP of his opposition to the bill. “We want to look for tactics to keep other people away, not put them in. “Gunn neither Hood responded to requests for comment. )
The news hit maternal fitness advocates hard in a state where pregnancy deaths are nearly twice as high as in the rest of the country, according to a 2019 report from the Mississippi State Department of Health. It is also where 60% of births are financed. through Medicaid, more than the national average rate of 42%, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
The Mississippi State Department of Health report found that black women in the state were about 3 times more likely to die from pregnancy-related reasons than white women.
“Where you live shouldn’t make the difference between living or dying,” said Michelle Owens, a professor of maternal-fetal medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. “If we can fill a gap that will make the difference between whether or not to shape a user’s life through expanding postpartum Medicaid coverage, why wouldn’t we?”
The rules vary from state to state, however, many other people become eligible for Medicaid policy, the national and state program that provides physical care to other low-income people, for pregnancy-related facilities during their pregnancy, and up to 60 days after pregnancy. given birth . For many, Medicaid policy is the only way to attend prenatal visits, give birth in the hospital, or receive preventive care before or after delivery for life-threatening situations that pregnancy can cause.
Maternal fitness experts say a common misconception is that active hard work is the only dangerous component of pregnancy. of deaths that occur after six weeks after giving birth.
“For a long time, we arbitrarily fixed the postpartum era as six weeks after birth, but death threats to women increase well beyond that era,” Owens said, noting that the threat of core events, hypertensive emergencies and blood clots are all persisting beyond the six-week postpartum era.
“If other people who give birth had more physical care within that time period, we may not see the point of morbidity and mortality that we have,” he added.
The United States has the maternal mortality rate of any evolved country, and studies show that 60% of the country’s maternal deaths are preventable.
Currently, 26 states have to expand postpartum Medicaid policy to last one year after delivery, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. make a larger Medicaid policy up to one year after delivery. However, states will still have to agree, making such an extension unlikely in many states.
Gunn told the AP that while he is aware of the state’s maternal mortality rate, the option that post-Medicaid expansion will save lives “has not been part of the discussions I heard. “Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (right) said he opposes it. Medicaid expansion.
The state has also been at the national high point in recent months when the Supreme Court deliberated on a 2018 Mississippi law that aims to ban the maximum number of abortions after 15 weeks. in particular, Roe v. Wade. Au in the middle of the case is the Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which has been the only abortion clinic in Mississippi since 2004.
According to some maternal health care providers, such regulations on abortion, along with restrictions on postpartum care, do not bode well for reproductive health outcomes: “If we are in a scenario where access to termination of pregnancy is restricted, but we also need to restrict care to give birth to other people in the era when they are most vulnerable, it’s hard for me to reconcile,” Owens said.
A 2021 Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine found that states with restrictive abortion legislation have higher maternal mortality: States with a restriction on Medicaid investment for abortion were linked to 29 percent higher maternal mortality. Discovered.
While Owens and Roberts say the postpartum expansion of Medicaid is a very important step in reducing the state’s highest maternal mortality rates, they say it’s just the beginning of the interventions needed to keep mothers safe in Mississippi, the poorest state in the country, according to the U. S. USA Census, where the source of income consistent with the capita is $24,369. More than 18% of the population lives below the poverty line.
“Maternal fitness doesn’t take a position in a vacuum,” Owens said, adding that it’s not unusual for her patients to have to decide between buying food or medicine, and for new moms to wonder if they’ll have a position for themselves. and your baby to live on once they are discharged from the hospital.
Roberts said many of the other people she works with suffer from postpartum depression, but without physical care coverage, can’t get the treatment or medications they’d like in the months before and after delivery. The Mississippi State Department of Health found that about 11 percent of maternal deaths in the state are due to suicides and overdoses.
For Owens, getting more people covered through Medicaid could help reduce emergency room visits and the cost of other people’s care forced to wait or medical care they can’t afford.
“People actually struggle, and I think we don’t know how complicated some of those conditions really are,” Owens said. our ability to perceive and empathize completely. “
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