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.