Spotlight Salon: Our Maternal Health Care Crisis

Breaking the Cycle of Women’s Health Inequity: Our Maternal Health Care Crisis

Please join our incredible panelists to discuss Prenatal and Postnatal Maternal Health Inequities from national, social, legislative, and medical perspectives. We will hear speakers from academia, the legislature, and the medical field, who will define the issues so that we can learn how to break the cycle.  *Registration form is below. 

Our panelists include:

Gaby Aboulafia– PhD student in Health Policy at Harvard University; Health, Political Analysis concentration

Dr. Shelley Amuh– Practitioner and Founder of The Puddle Project, which addresses the needs of pregnant African American teens.  https://thepuddleproject.org/

Dr. Laura E. Nathan– Medical Sociology Professor at UC Berkely and Mills College, Regents Research grantee, 1979, Mellon Foundation grantee, 1983, Faculty Development Research Grantee Mills College.

Meagan K. Thompson– Congresswoman Robin Kelly’s Senior Adviser on Health Policy.  Robin Kelly, IL-02, introduced the Care for Moms Act* in 2023.

Three questions that the panelists will address:

• What is the scope of the issue?
• Why does the inequity exist and what is the impact on the under-served and society overall?
• What can we do legislatively, socially, and economically to break the cycle?

*The CARE For Moms Act supports the maternal health workforce, promotes access to prenatal and postpartum care, and provides the resources that moms and babies need to thrive. The CARE For Moms Act includes the following provisions:

– Establish a State-Based Perinatal Quality Collaborative Grant Program

– Establish Regional Centers of Excellence to tackle implicit bias and promote cultural competence among health professionals.

– Support federal efforts to grow and diversify the doula workforce.

– Extend Medicaid coverage for postpartum mothers in all 50 states.

– Establish grants for Rural Obstetric Mobile Units.

– Require 90-day prior notification to HHS for hospital obstetric unit closures.

– Extending Medicaid and CHIP to Oral Health Coverage to pregnant and postpartum women.

– Extend WIC benefits for postpartum and breastfeeding women for two years.

– Require HHS to produce a report on federal funding allocation for maternal health needs.