Report recommends Missouri legislature expand perinatal resources
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)
Missouri health leaders say the state needs to do more to lower rates of maternal mortality in their annual report.
The annual report on Maternal Mortality in Missouri looks at five years of data. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services released the study commissioned by the Pregnancy-Associated Mortality Review Board last week. It recommends that the Missouri legislature establish and fund many perinatal resources and extend and expand Medicaid coverage for mothers.
The recently published report brings together five years of work and latest data gathered from between 2017 and 2021. This is the first time a continuous five-year report has been available.
The report's findings spanned various topics and factors surrounding maternal mortality, such as health-related deaths, substance use and non-pregnancy-related incidents. Data also focused on different demographic factors like race and economic status when analyzing any disparities in the results.
Pregnancy-related death occurs during or within one year of pregnancy, so the data also focuses on postpartum deaths.
The report found that from 2017 to 2021 the state had an average of 70 deaths per year with the pregnancy-related mortality ratio being 32.2 deaths per 100,000 live births. According to the CDC, the United States had a rate of 32.9 in 2021.
The report also found that in the state, the ratio for black women is 2.5 times the ratio of white women. However, this is a decline from previous reports.
Additionally, the report found that women in micropolitan counties, or urban areas with a population of at least 10,000 but less than 50,000, had the highest ratio of pregnancy-related deaths. Deaths for women who were covered by MO HealthNet were seven times greater than women with private insurance, and cardiovascular diseases were the biggest cause of pregnancy-related deaths, followed by mental health conditions.
According to the key findings, all pregnancy-related deaths due to mental health conditions, including substance use disorder, were determined to be preventable.
The report found that nearly 1-in-3 pregnancy-related deaths were caused by mental health conditions unrelated to substance disorders.
To focus on prevention, the recommendations for both Missouri legislature and health care organizations focus heavily on postpartum care and destigmatizing mental health care. Health care providers and facilities are advised to fully assess patients for depression and anxiety and utilize social workers and postpartum doulas for any referrals a patient needs.
"Women struggle so much after childbirth due to  financial stress,  lack of support, lack of resources, geographic isolation," Sarah Kilpela, who is the president of Missouri mother's support group It Takes a Village, said.
Reducing maternal mortality has been a priority for both Democratic and Republican lawmakers for the past few years in Jefferson City. Legislators allocated $4.4 million last year to a plan to bring the numbers down.
However, the report says more should be done.
"I believe that a lot of this is preventable. But like I said, we have to retrain ourselves as a society to take care of mothers better than we ever have, because our stress is more than it ever has been," Kilpela said.
