For two congresswomen sponsoring a package of bills seeking to improve maternal health in the United States, their motivation is personal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After first unveiling the initiatives five years ago, U.S. Reps. Alma Adams of North Carolina and Lauren Underwood of Illinois plan to reintroduce the measures with bipartisan support in May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Adams and Underwood, the Momnibus Act<\/a>\u2019s Democratic House sponsors, say relatives or friends have died after childbirth or had severe complications during pregnancy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI got involved because my daughter almost became a victim of our maternal health crisis,\u201d Adams told States Newsroom. Nineteen years ago, her daughter experienced a high-risk pregnancy, but Adams said doctors dismissed her complaints of abdominal pain during labor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n Some providers do not listen to women\u2019s concerns, she said, particularly women of color. About 30% of Black, Hispanic and multiracial mothers said they were mistreated during maternity care<\/a>, and roughly 40% reported discrimination, according to a report released in 2023 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Underwood, who is also a registered nurse, said her dedication to improving maternal health equity stems from the death of her friend Dr. Shalon Irving, a CDC epidemiologist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn 2017, my friend Dr. Shalon Irving died just 3 weeks after giving birth to her daughter, Soleil. Dr. Shalon\u2019s life and story have inspired my work in Congress to address our nation\u2019s Black maternal health crisis,\u201d Underwood wrote<\/a> on social media in 2021, when she reintroduced<\/a> an expanded version of the Momnibus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Adams and Underwood co-founded the Black Maternal Health Caucus in 2019 and unveiled<\/a> the first iteration of the act in early March 2020<\/a> with former Democratic California Sen. Kamala Harris shortly before the coronavirus pandemic exacerbated maternal mortality rates<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The slate of bills aims to increase funding to study maternal health disparities<\/a>, extend eligibility for the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program<\/a>, diversify the perinatal workforce and<\/a> invest in prenatal care for incarcerated mothers<\/a>, among other provisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Democratic New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker carries the Momnibus in the upper chamber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the package was reintroduced in 2021, Congress passed just one part of it \u2014 the Protecting Moms Who Served Act<\/a>. The law required the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to create a $15 million maternity care coordination program. No individual bills passed in the next congressional session, but lawmakers have funded over $200 million<\/a> in maternal health research<\/a> and equity programs<\/a> through appropriations bills in fiscal years 2023 and 2024. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Underwood said she, Adams and Booker plan to bring back the 14-bill Momnibus package during the congressional session this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere\u2019s a real sense of urgency in this work, and we\u2019re excited to work with colleagues in both chambers, Democrats and Republicans, to come together to save mom\u2019s lives,\u201d Underwood said. Democratic U.S. Rep. Alma Adams of North Carolina said there is bipartisan interest in the Momnibus: \u201cAll of the moms out there, I want them to know that the pain that they have endured and continue to endure, the struggles that they have, we\u2019ve got some folks working here in Congress \u2014 like Rep. Underwood and myself and many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle \u2014 who really believe that this is a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Republican Party leaders champion the GOP as pro-family, though their Democratic colleagues might argue many of their policies are anything but. Whether the Momnibus can garner enough bipartisan support for passage and signature remains to be seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Several individual measures in the Momnibus have Republican sponsors, including Alabama Sen. Katie Britt and Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick. States Newsroom reached out to Britt and Fitzpatrick\u2019s representatives for interviews. Britt was not available, and Fitzpatrick\u2019s staff did not respond to multiple requests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last year, Britt and Fitzpatrick sponsored the National Institutes of Health IMPROVE Act<\/a> with Underwood and former Sen. Laphonza Butler, a California Democrat. The measure didn\u2019t make it to committee, but it would have given $53.4 million to the NIH yearly through 2031 for research on how to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Britt was able to secure more than $73 million for the initiative in the latest appropriations bill. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAlabama has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the nation. This disproportionately affects Black women,\u201d she said in an August press release<\/a>. \u201cIn 2024, it should not be like this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Britt\u2019s emphasis on racial maternal health disparities and commitment to public health funding contrasts with rhetoric from other national Republicans that seeks to eradicate discussions of systemic racism and opposes policies meant to remedy deep-rooted discrimination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The push for funding maternal health research comes as a Republican-controlled Congress is facing pressure from President Donald Trump to slash funding at historic levels. The administration has already moved to gut national reproductive health research units, including the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System<\/a> staff and the Assisted Reproductive Technology Surveillance Team<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Natalie Hernandez, the executive director of the Morehouse School of Medicine\u2019s Center for Maternal Health Equity, said her institution, an historically Black college and university, lost a federal grant focused on addressing maternal behavioral health, including mental health conditions, substance use disorders and intimate partner violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat we\u2019re trying to do is re-strategize and figure out how to continue a lot of the efforts that we\u2019ve made,\u201d Hernandez said. She emphasized that maternal health research has led lawmakers to enact effective policies, like postpartum Medicaid expansion<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re at a time when we need to be moving forward and investing more and expanding more access and services to mothers and families,\u201d said Jesseca Boyer, vice president of policy and strategic initiatives at the Institute for Women\u2019s Policy Research, a nonpartisan nonprofit. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing this administration moving backwards.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Boyer said the Momnibus is a critical piece of legislation to address the maternal health crisis in the U.S. Black mothers continue to die from pregnancy-related causes at higher rates than other demographics, though nationwide maternal mortality numbers have decreased from pandemic highs<\/a> \u2014 the pregnancy-related death rate was 18.6 per 100,000 live births in 2023, down from 22.3 in 2022, per the latest federal data. The maternal mortality rate for Black women was 50.3 in 2023, compared with 14.5 for white women, 12.4 for Hispanic women and 10.7 for Asian women. Data for Native American mothers was not provided. Republican U.S. Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama co-sponsored legislation with Democrats last year that would fund extensive maternal health research for five years, but the fate of public health funding is unclear as the Trump administration proposes steep budgetary cuts. (Photo by Samuel Corum\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Passage of the NIH Improve Act could show congressional support for maternal health research and investigating the root causes of maternal mortality, Boyer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Patrick T. Brown is a Life and Family Initiative fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a conservative nonprofit advocacy organization. The center published a report about abortion medication last week that anti-abortion opponents told Politico<\/a> they hope will spur the Trump administration to restrict access to the drugs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Brown has written<\/a> extensively<\/a> about how conservatives can improve outcomes for parents and children. While he hasn\u2019t read the minutiae of the Momnibus, supporting mothers by investing in doula care, breastfeeding support and the like is \u201ccommon sense,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brown also endorsed the idea of a \u201cbaby bonus,\u201d one-time federal payments of $4,000 for married parents or $2,000 for single parents of newborns. The New York Times<\/a> reported that some lawmakers have floated this idea, and Trump endorsed the notion in 2023 at the Conservative Political Action Conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOftentimes around childbirth, needs go up and income goes down. If we want to stabilize new parents, and we know that having resources is linked to better outcomes for mom and baby just because you can afford not to have to go back to work and all the rest, this is a way of recognizing that without having to build a huge paid leave entitlement or something that really gets Republicans up in arms,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He emphasized he does not believe a lump sum payment is a one-size-fits-all solution to helping parents raise children, and he suspected that some Republicans would deride the idea as welfare. \u201cThey\u2019ve been thinking this way since 1980, and nothing I say is going to change their minds,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Adams, Boyer, Brown and Underwood all agree that there should be some consensus in Congress on how to improve maternal health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLegislative success is not always linear, and it\u2019s not always quick, but we\u2019re not deterred or discouraged,\u201d Underwood said. \u201cWe are focused, and it\u2019s clear that these resources are desperately needed in all ZIP codes across the country.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Georgia Recorder<\/a> is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n[mailerlite_form form_id=3]\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For two congresswomen sponsoring a package of bills seeking to improve maternal health in the United States, their motivation is personal. After first unveiling the initiatives five years ago, U.S. Reps. Alma Adams of North Carolina and Lauren Underwood of Illinois plan to reintroduce the measures with bipartisan support in May. Adams and Underwood, the Momnibus […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":948,"featured_media":221740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11786],"tags":[13789,17907],"class_list":["post-221739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-maternal-health","tag-momnibus-act","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/948"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=221739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=221739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=221739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=221739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}