“Knowledge is power,” the saying goes. Knowing what has contributed to the deaths of so many pregnant women and new mothers in Virginia in recent years empowers efforts to save more lives in the years ahead. Unfortunately, the future of an important means of gathering and analyzing that information is in doubt.
Virginia’s team that collects data about the deaths of mothers during and after pregnancy and childbirth is still in business for now, but it’s operating on borrowed time. While the state’s Maternal Mortality Review Team continues its vital work, state leaders must do all they can to ensure that work can continue after allocated federal money runs out next Aug. 31.
When Congress shut down the government Oct. 1 because members couldn’t agree on annual spending, it put money for a host of federal programs in limbo, including that for Virginia and other states to continue reviewing birth-related deaths.
The federal program — known as Enhancing Reviews and Surveillance to Eliminate Maternal Mortality, or ERASE MM — was started in 2019, during the first Trump administration. It reflected a recognition that the United States has a higher maternal mortality rate than most other high-income countries, and that many of those deaths could have been prevented. Since then, millions of federal dollars have gone to help states determine the causes of maternal deaths so that they can take appropriate action.
The findings have prompted strategies to help prevent some deaths, including those from hemorrhage, sepsis and suicide.
But the Trump administration’s budget proposal includes no funds for the ERASE MM program or for related programs designed to reduce the risks of premature births and infections affecting mothers and infants.
Fortunately, the Virginia Department of Health says that the state’s Maternal Mortality Review Team will continue collecting and analyzing data at least until next Aug. 31, because the money for 2025-26 had already been allocated.
At least one member of the state’s congressional delegation, Rep. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond, has gone on record saying she will work on legislation to reauthorize maternal mortality funding. Others should step up to support this program.
If federal funds are not forthcoming, Virginia will need to devote more state money to efforts to save the lives of pregnant women and new mothers.
Those efforts complement the “Virginia Momnibus” package of 12 related bills passed by the General Assembly this year. The legislation is designed to improve the lives of pregnant women, new mothers and infants. Understanding the problems they face is essential.
Democratic legislators initiated the “Momnibus,” but the package of a dozen laws and about $7 million in funding enjoyed considerable Republican support. Some bills are designed to compensate for disparities in health care: women who are poor; who live in rural or inner-city areas; women of color, especially Black women, and immigrants all tend to suffer disproportionately from lack of prenatal care, inadequate social support and chronic stress.
Disparities can lead to premature births, deaths during labor and afterward, as well as infant mortality. So can lack of health insurance and prenatal care, a shortage of trained professionals in pregnancy-related fields, and lack of understanding among some medical professionals about pregnancy-related emergencies. Drug use is a factor in some cases, and so are depression and other mental-health problems.
When the statistics for maternal deaths and premature births are surveyed nationally, the commonwealth as a whole looks about average. Closer examination shows that some specific areas, including Virginia Beach, Chesapeake and Norfolk, have significantly higher rates of these problems.
The Momnibus bills have been in effect only a few months, but there is little doubt that continuing to have a reliable source of data will be crucial to the effort to reduce the numbers of pregnancy-related deaths.
Whatever happens in Washington, Virginia’s leaders should continue to work to improve maternal health care in the commonwealth. Gathering and understanding information about why women and infants die, and what can be done to protect them, is an important part of that effort.
