A legislative committee discussed how to combat Arkansas' high rate of maternal mortality on Friday.
Officials from the Arkansas Department of Health said they wanted to “fill in the gaps,” when it comes to care and education. The state has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the nation.
Maternal mortality is defined as when someone dies within a year of giving birth. The Arkansas Department of Health estimates that 92% of these deaths are preventable, and are caused by lack of health education and access.
Health Department Secretary Renee Mallory said many of the deaths happen to people who already have chronic conditions.
“Women are not healthy when they go into pregnancy,” she said. “So to change that dynamic is tough, we’re not a healthy state.”
Mallory says over 10,000 women in the state don't get appropriate prenatal care. She is working to help pregnant people who don't have a provider and find one. She says the department will help these people go on Medicaid “if that’s appropriate.”
Of all babies born in Arkansas, Mallory says 58% are born on Medicaid. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Jonesboro, said he was concerned about the problem of maternal mortality, but thought having that many babies on Medicaid was “not a good trend.”
“We all agree we need healthy babies,” he said. “But if the trend is that well over half the babies born in Arkansas are on Medicaid, then that's not a good trend and our plan needs to have something in it to reduce the number of babies on Medicaid.”
Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View, said having conversations about maternal care is a good way to ease the problem.
“The lack of prenatal visits is really concerning,” she said, referencing how many women wait until their final trimester to go to the doctor. “We have to talk about these things, and make sure we're paying for women to have a full scale of prenatal visits.”
Recently, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed an executive action to combat the problem. She believes that combating maternal mortality is a problem with lack of education and not lack of medical care or Medicaid access; that informing mothers about the resources that already exist will be the best way to cut the number down.
Her plan listed four steps: increasing access, improving education, improving maternal health and creating statewide coordination.
The order looks to expand telehealth options and create advertising campaigns about maternal care. It created a pilot program targeting five counties with lower-than-average maternal care: Garland, Scott, Phillips, Crittenden and Polk.
