Black Maternal Health Week was celebrated nationwide April 11 to April 17 this year, and to kick things off, Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester held a roundtable discussion on Saturday in Wilmington, Delaware.
The conversation focused on how to continue reducing disproportionate maternal mortality rates for people of color, with commentary from the congresswoman, as well as State Sen. Marie Pinkney (D-Bear), President and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All Mini Timmaraju and Co-Chairs of Delaware's Black Maternal Health Committee Tiffany Chalk and Mona Liza Hamlin.
"In the United States, a country that is one of the richest nations in the world, we see that maternal mortality, instead of it going down or staying stable, it is on the rise, and 80% of the deaths that we see are preventable," Blunt Rochester said in her opening remarks. "And black women, as we all know around this table, are three times more likely to die than their white counterparts."
Blunt Rochester also noted in 2019, Black women made up 28% of live births in Delaware, but they represented 78% of pregnancy-related deaths in 2017 to 2021.
"It was important for us at this roundtable to have the majority of participants [be] Delawareans, talking about their Delaware experiences, both as Black women and what has happened to them in their lives, but also as a legislator here in Delaware who is doing the work on the ground of making the change," she said.
One of the largest national legislative efforts to address these discrepancies is the Black Maternal Health Momnibus, a 13-bill package that was re-introduced in the 118th Congress in May 2023.
While all of the bills are currently stalled in committees, Blunt Rochester said she is working to gain momentum on one of the bills she is co-sponsoring known as the Moms Matter Act.
The bill establishes grant programs to help address maternal mental health conditions and substance use disorders with a focus on racial and ethnic minority groups. Blunt Rochester said portions of that legislation were added to a larger bill in hopes to see some activity.
Pinkney was also able to highlight several of the statewide legislative efforts being made to address Black maternal mortality rates, with her focus being on the social determinates of health.
Pinkney is working on a substituted version of a bill she introduced last year that would revamp the Delaware probation system, including efforts to enable the customization of conditions of probation to meet individual needs, invest in community-based re-entry programs and limit probation terms to 1 year.
"I think that gets left out of the conversation — there are moms on probation, and they need to have the support of having useful, helpful probation services that aren't going to pull them away from their families," Pinkney said, hoping the bill will be heard this legislative session.
She also stressed the importance of improving affordable housing in the state, mentioning State. Sen. Russ Huxtable's (D-Lewes) recently introduced seven-bill package to address housing needs, as well as passing legislation to improve re-enfranchisement of previously incarcerated individuals.
"It's important that we're making sure that the conversation is about the whole of health care and how all of the different aspects of our lives impact our health care long-term," Pinkney added.
House Majority Leader Melissa Minor-Brown (D-New Castle) also effectively revived her bill on Wednesday to require all health benefit plans delivered or issued for Medicaid to cover services related to the termination of pregnancy.
Delaware Department of Health and Social Services Director of Health Care Reform Steven Costantino explained the bill would specifically aid low-income birthing persons in terminating a pregnancy, largely for individuals who are under 138% of the federal poverty level.
Pinkney, a co-sponsor of the bill, says the legislation will help ensure those who are utilizing state resources have the same coverage access to pregnancy planning as those with higher financial means.
"People who are on Medicaid should have the same access and the same ability to determine their birth plans as anyone else," Pinkney said.
Minor-Brown noted expanding reproductive health care access to low-income individuals directly correlates with expanding access for individuals of color.
“We’ve seen in other states, especially the state with the abortion bans, how the Black maternal mortality has actually gotten worse, infant mortality has actually worsened, because it creates barriers towards much needed health care, and this is health care," she said.
The bill will now heads to the House for a full vote.
Minor-Brown also noted lawmakers have been working to expand doula coverage in the state with the passage of House Bill 80 last year, which added doula services to Medicaid coverage.
Minor-Brown previously explained doula's provide an "extra set of eyes" to identify early warning sings for things like cardiovascular issues, postpartum depression, anxiety disorders and substance use disorders among mothers.
She is now working even further to expand doula access with House Bill 345, requiring Medicaid to cover additional postpartum doula visits recommended by a licensed healthcare provider, and last week, she introduced an additional bill, House Bill 362, to require full doula coverage under private health insurance plans.
House Bill 345 passed the House with full bipartisan support and now awaits a hearing in the Senate Health and Social Services Committee, while House Bill 362 is waiting for its initial hearing in the House Economic Development/Banking/Insurance & Commerce Committee.
"At the end of the day, we're not going to stop having these conversations until the disparities no longer exist," Minor-Brown said.
