The state of Tennessee has received more than $4.2 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Health Resources and Service Administration (HRSA) to address the problem of maternal mortality.
This award is to support the White House Blueprint for Addressing the Maternal Health Crisis, which the HRSA describes as “a whole-of-government strategy to combat maternal mortality and improve maternal health, particularly in underserved communities.”
The United States has historically held one of the highest maternal mortality rates. A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed that the U.S. maternal mortality rate had increased 40 percent from 2020 to 2021.
Maternal death is defined by the World Health Organization as “the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and the site of the pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management, but not from accidental or incidental causes.”
The White House Blueprint for Addressing the Maternal Health Crisis said that this is a “longstanding” problem and has been “exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and recent trends in hospital obstetric unit closures in rural areas.”
“Women who live in rural America — where there are many maternal care deserts — are about 60 percent more likely to die,” said the blueprint.
Accessibility is an issue that contributes to increased maternal mortality rates in Memphis. Information released to CHOICES from the City Health Dashboard said that “60.3% of live birth are to African American and 35.4% of African American women who gave birth lacked adequate prenatal care.” In comparison, “15.3% of white women in Memphis lacked access to adequate prenatal care.”
The White House also said that Black women are “three times as likely to die from pregnancy-related complications.” Tennessee’s 2021 Maternal Mortality Rate Annual Report showed that “non-Hispanic Black women” are 3.9 times as likely to die from pregnancy-related causes compared to “non-Hispanic white women.”
“The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to reversing these trends and making the U.S. the best country in the world to have a baby,” said HRSA in a statement.
HRSA is investing $2 million into supporting nurse midwifery programs at the University of Tennessee and Vanderbilt University. They said this is to grow the maternal health nursing workforce and expand access to care.
The HRSA awarded $750,000 to expand screening and treatment for “maternal depression and other mental health and substance use disorders.” According to HRSA, this includes teleconsultation support, and other resources to “better meet their patients’ behavioral health needs.”
The organization is also investing $1,309,006 into maternal health research. This is to “establish a new research network that will support minority serving institutions of higher learning to study the disparities in maternal health outcomes and identify effective methods and strategies.”
An investment of $170,233 is also being made to help new mothers and their families with Medicaid eligibility redeterminations, said the HRSA.
