The Broader Societal Implications of Maternal Health Issues

The Commonwealth Fund study highlights the high maternal mortality rate in the US. Can you elaborate on the broader societal implications of these maternal health issues? 

What you're asking when you think about maternal mortality and the crises that we're experiencing right now, it really does go beyond a single individual, person being impacted. What I mean by this is that poor outcomes of an individual person can really have disastrous social and economic effects, not only on that woman, but her family and the communities around her. For example, if you think about birth complications for that mom, it can lead to a substantial health expense for the acute care timeframe, but also potentially long term, including potentially the need for blood transfusions, significant morbidity, and mortality for the child.

Also, when you think about this, we also have to realize that some of these complications don't have a short term. They can actually last longer. And so long term care can lead to a reduction in one's ability to participate in the workforce and additional economic and productivity losses, again, not only for that individual family, but for society as a whole. And then there's a possibility to have physical and emotional impact that can last for a long time, it's really important to recognize that what we're talking about is not just about the impact to an individual woman through a very narrow definition, but it's about how this impacts our economy and our society as a whole.

The facts are really clear, investing in the health of a woman is important for not only that individual, but entire communities, including men, women, and children. And if we're thinking about this ripple effect, we need to really mobilize to achieve better health outcomes and turn a greater eye towards the needs of women everywhere. Now how, how this can also manifest itself is with the realities that we face today when we think about how many women, far too many women, are experiencing morbidity and mortality at really alarming rates, and it's partially in due to a lack of access to the necessary maternal health care services that are needed.

This is what we call maternity care deserts, which are counties where you don't have a hospital or a birth center that offer obstetrical care. In 2024 we can still talk about this, which is very sad when you look at the March of Dimes data, nearly 35% of all US counties are considered deserts. This affects nearly 2.2 million women and 150,000 babies. Then when you think about the next layer, where you have limited maternity care, there's another 4.7 million women who are affected there. When you think about these barriers for women as a whole, it's even greater for underrepresented communities. Black women in the US are more than three times likely to die from a pregnancy related condition compared to white women, according to the CDC. So as a whole, the impact to our society is substantial. And this is what I think we have to really think about, is not only the impact to the individual mom and her family, but to society as a whole.