Last Month, Heitkamp Met with Mothers & Maternal Health Advocates in Grand Forks to Discuss New Ways to Protect Mothers & Infants

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp today announced that she introduced wide-ranging legislation to help address rising nationwide maternal mortality rates and to strengthen access to maternal health resources and data in rural communities.

More women in the United States die from pregnancy-related complications than in most other developed nations— and the number of maternal deaths is rising. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), pregnancy-related deaths in the United States increased by 250 percent from 1987-2014. And another study found that 60 percent of the nation’s maternal deaths could have been prevented with proper care.

Heitkamp’s Rural Maternal and Obstetric Modernization of Services (MOMS) Act would improve maternal health data sharing in rural communities and promote successful delivery models for North Dakota’s rural health care providers, including through the creation of regional Rural Obstetric Collaborative Improvement & Innovation Networks (COIINs). Additionally, her legislation would help train the next generation of rural maternal and obstetric care providers and would require a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on ways to improve rural maternal health outcomes.

“At a discussion in Grand Forks last month, I heard from several North Dakota mothers who have experienced complications either during their pregnancies, during childbirth, or during their post-partum periods. Their stories were harrowing, and no mother— no matter their zip code— should have to experience the physical and emotional distress of preventable pregnancy complications,” said Heitkamp. “To help combat the growing maternal mortality crisis in rural America and Indian Country, my bill would prioritize collecting rural maternal health data, expanding information-sharing between rural obstetricians, and increasing access to high-quality training and guidance for rural nurses, midwives, and physicians in these communities. This needed legislation also builds on my bipartisan bill to boost our research efforts to understand why we’re seeing rising maternal deaths in a nation as advanced as the United States. By preventing these heartbreaking tragedies and protecting North Dakota mothers and infants, we are giving ourselves the research, skills, and best practices to build stronger, safer, and healthier rural and tribal communities.”

Heitkamp’s legislation builds on meetings she has held with North Dakotans over the years, including a roundtable discussion with health care providers, families, and maternal health advocates in Grand Forks last month. Heitkamp heard from several mothers who have experienced complications during pregnancy or following the birth of their children.

“Over the past two decades, maternal mortality rates have doubled in the United States. In rural communities, this tragic pattern is happening alongside hospital closures, longer travel times, and racial disparities in underserved areas, like Indian Country,” said Katy Kozhimannil, a maternal and rural health researcher and Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. “Senator Heitkamp’s bill would take strong action on many of our research findings, including building the data infrastructure urgently needed to improve maternal health outcomes in rural communities. This bill responds directly to gaps in care for rural families that our research has revealed. It would address barriers to healthy pregnancies in rural and areas and states with smaller populations, like North Dakota, and it ensure that information from rural communities informs efforts to find solutions to mitigate this crisis.” 

Heitkamp’s Rural MOMS Act is supported by the National March of Dimes and the National Rural Health Association. Click here for a summary of the bill.  

“All pregnant women deserve quality health care, regardless of where they live,” said March of Dimes President Stacey D. Stewart. “We just released a nationwide report that shows that more than 5 million women live in maternity care deserts, counties with no hospital offering obstetric care and no obstetric providers. Of those women, 80 percent live in rural areas.  March of Dimes commends Senator Heitkamp for recognizing the challenges faced by pregnant women in rural areas and working to ensure healthy moms and strong babies.”

“18 million reproductive-age women live in rural communities across the United States, and half a million babies are born in rural hospitals every year. The number of rural hospitals without an obstetrics unit or any obstetrics care is growing at an alarming rate, placing expecting mothers at risk,” said Diane Calmus, Regulatory Counsel, National Rural Health Association. “Senator Heitkamp’s Rural MOMS Act will help rural communities struggling with rising maternal mortality rates and disappearing care by improving data, addressing workforce shortages, and supporting increased services.”

Across the country, maternal mortality rates have been particularly dire in rural America and minority communities. For example, a recent study showed that American Indian and Alaska Native mothers in certain states were more than 4.5 times more likely to die from pregnancy and childbirth-related causes than non-Hispanic, white mothers. 

Heitkamp’s bill would address rising rates of maternal mortality in these communities and would improve access to resources that promote best practices for rural health care providers as they improve their maternal health services. Specifically, Heitkamp’s bill would:

• Expand rural maternal and obstetric health research and data by strengthening National Institutes of Health (NIH) and CDC activities that actively address maternal mortality and by improving monitoring of maternal and obstetric health services in rural areas.

• Help women in rural areas connect to maternal and obstetric care by establishing Rural Obstetric Health Collaborative Improvement and Innovation Networks (CoIINs) to identify successful delivery models, provide guidance to rural hospitals, and improve outcomes in rural areas, including Indian Country and frontier areas.

• Improve the rural telehealth services for maternal care by extending telehealth network and telehealth resources programs to include maternal and obstetric care providers in telehealth networks.

• Build a stronger rural maternal and obstetric workforce by developing resident programs or fellowships to include rural obstetric tracks for family physicians and by improving current training programs to include rural-specific obstetric training for health care professionals. Additionally, her legislation would require a GAO report to address gaps in the maternal care workforce in rural communities.

Background

Heitkamp has long worked in the U.S. Senate to strengthen support for obstetric providers and patients in North Dakota’s rural communities. In June 2018, Heitkamp’s bipartisan bill to combat the ongoing maternal mortality crisis passed out of a key Senate committee. This legislation would strengthen on-the-ground resources by expanding maternal mortality review committees (MMRCs) that identify contributing factors to maternal deaths and offer recommendations to improve outcomes for expecting mothers. MMRCs currently do not exist in 15 states, including North Dakota.

And last month, Heitkamp helped pass a bipartisan funding bill that includes $50 million in funding to be used for a new initiative aimed at reducing maternal mortality— which Heitkamp successfully pushed for. The bill also includes $12 million for expanded data collection at State Maternal Mortality review boards and $38 million to expand evidence-based programs to advance maternal health equity in rural, tribal, and historically underserved areas.

###