Governor Aims $4M-Plus at 'Embarrassing' Missouri Maternal Mortality

Earlier this year, a report laid out the state's stark maternal health divide among Black women and those on Medicaid

Dec 7, 2023 at 6:18 am

Missouri Governor Mike Parson. TIM BOMMEL/HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS

[
          {
            "name": "GPT - Leaderboard - Inline - Content",
            "component": "41932919",
            "insertPoint": "5th",
            "startingPoint": "3",
            "requiredCountToDisplay": "3",
            "maxInsertions": 100
          }
          
        ]

Maternal mortality rates in impoverished areas of Missouri have historically rivaled that of third-world countries. The state's now directing money to do something about it.

Governor Mike Parson's office announced yesterday that the Department of Health and Senior Services, DHSS, has a new plan to improve the health of pregnant women and their care after childbirth, fueled by the $4.3 million the governor previously asked the general assembly to allocate.

Missouri’s "maternal mortality prevention plan" has five main focuses: Maternal Quality Care Protocols, Maternal Care Workforce, Optimize Postpartum Care, Maternal Health Access Project, and Improved Maternal Health Data. Work being done includes a plan to "develop and implement standardized evidence-based protocols for maternal-fetal health care," investments in mental health and postpartum care, and "trauma-informed, responsive, culturally congruent, and linguistically appropriate care, including screening, referral, and treatment of mental health conditions and substance use disorder during and after pregnancy as well as cardiovascular disorders, gestational diabetes, and other endocrinology disorders associated with pregnancy."

News of the state's plan comes four months after a DHSS report released startling statistics on just how stark the maternal health divide is in Missouri. Black pregnant women here are three times more likely to die, the report found, and women on Medicaid in Missouri are eight times more likely to die within one year of pregnancy compared to those with private insurance.

The lack of access to reproductive health care in Missouri's Bootheel region, where most women have to drive hours to the nearest hospital to give birth, was the subject of an RFT cover story in October 2022.

While Parson did opine on the state's abysmal maternal mortality rate during his state of the state address in January, calling it "embarrassing," the governor is not exactly known as a champion for women's health issues. The man has repeatedly moved to shut down Planned Parenthood.

Some might argue that an institution seeking to remedy health divides shouldn't have to fight to keep its doors open. But hey, if Parson and team wants to send money to the institutions of their choice with almost the same mission, that's more than nothing. Right?