maternal health

Eskenazi Health has announced two new initiatives aimed at improving maternal health following a year-long effort to assess health barriers in several Central Indiana neighborhoods.

The report by the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform found a growing number of rural hospitals no longer deliver babies.

IU’s Public Policy Institute found that lack of access to services, substance use disorders and discrimination in health care contributed to disparity in maternal mortality rates.

Indiana lawmakers recognize that doulas can improve maternal outcomes. So, they passed new laws and dispensed millions of dollars in grants to expand access to doula services with no real progress.

Policy experts say one way to help close the racial gap in maternal health outcomes is to ensure people on Medicaid dont lose coverage two months after pregnancy.

The U.S infant mortality rate has steadily declined over the past two decades. But some states are starting to see the reverse trend with the rate of Black infant deaths far outpacing that of White infants.

Between 2018 and 2020, eight Indiana counties have seen improvements in access to maternity care: Adams, Daviess, Delaware, Fulton, Johnson, Lagrange, Miami, Vermillion and Wabash. And nine have gotten worse: Fayette, Greene, Henry, La Porte, Orange, Pulaski, Ripley, Scott and Steuben.

The latest maternal mortality report from the Indiana State Department of Health found that more women are dying during pregnancy and up to a year after delivery in Indiana.

Researchers conducting the "Ask the Women" study spoke to people in zip codes with high infant mortality rates in an effort to understand where they experienced gaps in care.

More states are taking advantage of a provision in the American Rescue Plan that enables pregnant people to keep their Medicaid coverage longer after giving birth.