Policy Recommendations for Maternal and Infant Health
- Expand access to Medicaid for mothers and their infants, extending coverage after childbirth to 12 months.
- Advocate for Medicaid and private insurance plans to cover doula care services.
- Improve access to mental health services for mothers via insurance coverage, universal screening, referral and treatment coordination.
- Support efforts to include midwives into maternity care by removing restrictive laws.
- Increase access to quality telehealth services to providers and pregnant women, especially those living in maternity care deserts.
- Develop and promote value-based payment models that reward providers and health care centers that show improvements in maternal and infant health outcomes.
- Implement standardized implicit bias training for health care providers and their staff who care for women and their infants before, during after pregnancy.
- Support healthy practices in the workplace to encourage maternal and infant health, such as parental leave, breastfeeding promotion and paid family leave.
- Enact policies that combat social determinants (such as housing, poverty, food insecurity and access to health care) that influence poor outcomes related to maternal and infant health.
- Encourage Congress and other funders to provide resources to increase surveillance, research and data collection on maternal and infant health priorities.
- Support the reinstitution of the Roe v. Wade abortion policy, giving pregnant women the constitutional right to have an abortion without the state’s approval. Currently, abortion is not restricted based on gestational duration in the state of Michigan.
- This is the story of Amber Thurman from Georgia. She died from pregnancy complications, and many people believe the overturning of Roe v. Wade influenced her death, preventing her from receiving an abortion procedure to save her life. theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/sep/19/georgia-abortion-ban
- This is the story of Candi Miller from Georgia. Due to Georgia’s abortion ban, she was unable to receive the necessary medical procedure to have a full abortion, resulting in a failed abortion attempt using abortion pills. She was found dead by her husband.www.propublica.org/article/candi-miller-abortion-ban-death-georgia
Maternal and infant health data can be viewed here.
References