ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia health officials laid out efforts on Tuesday to stem the tide of increasing deaths among new mothers in the state as evidence shows that the rate of death from pregnancy has risen more steeply in Georgia that almost any other state.
“This needle moves slowly, but we need to start working on things," Dr. Mitch Rodriguez, a member of the Board of Public Health and a neonatal specialist in Macon, said during a board meeting. "It’s going to take us a while to make those changes, but you have to start at some point.”
The state's numbers found that 113 women died from pregnancy-related causes in the years 2018 to 2020, either during pregnancy or in the year after birth. That's 30.2 deaths for every 100,000 live births.
A study published last week by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and the Boston-based Mass General Brigham health system found that between 1999 and 2019, Georgia was among the five worst states for increasing mortality among white, Hispanic, Black and Asian-Pacific Islander women. Death rates for all those groups more than doubled over the 20-year period, the study found.
While Georgia found 48.6 deaths per 100,000 births for Black mothers, the researchers estimated the number is roughly 100 per 100,000. That means 1 Black mother dies for every 1,000 births in Georgia. That study used a different methodology and is not comparable to Georgia's numbers, said Department of Public Health spokesperson Nancy Nydam.
A third set of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows Georgia had the seventh-highest maternal mortality rate in the nation from 2018 to 2021.
In any case, officials agree the death rate isn't declining in Georgia, where officials estimate that 89% of maternal deaths between 2018 and 2020 were preventable. Public Health Commissioner Kathleen Toomey said Tuesday that's a broad, “multidisciplinary” definition of preventable, though, including mothers who die because of substance abuse, mental health disorders, or being discriminated against.
“If you look at the definition of preventable, it really excludes very few things," Toomey said.
Democratic U.S. Sen Raphael Warnock proposed on Tuesday a five-year, $50 million grant program to aid maternal health outcomes and reduce bias and discrimination.
“The rate of maternal mortality is an ongoing and worsening crisis,” Warnock said in a statement. “Black women are particularly at risk in the state of Georgia, where they are three to four times more likely to die related to childbirth or pregnancy than their white sisters.”
State officials highlighted efforts Tuesday to treat hemorrhaging, high blood pressure, heart problems and mental health disorders, which can all contribute to deaths. The state is working with hospitals to reduce the rate of preeclampsia and eclampsia, pregnancy complications caused by high blood pressure, by 20% by the end of the year. Eclampsia can cause convulsions or a coma, which can harm both mother and child.
The state is also trying to reduce problems caused by cardiac conditions by 20% by early 2026. Heart problems are particularly severe among Black women.
Early results show a sharp reduction in hypertension problems. But a separate effort working with hospitals to cut problems from bleeding, which showed some improvement in 2021, appears to have disappeared in the 2022. Nydam said state health officials were “less hands-on” after 2021.
“What this tells us is that there is an opportunity for DPH to stay engaged with member hospitals and provide ongoing support to sustain the initiative,” Nydam said.
Two other efforts could also help Georgia's new moms. The state agreed to expand Medicaid health insurance to cover low-income mothers for a year after birth, from the previous six months, an initiative estimated to cost $28 million. Of mothers who died from 2018-2020, at least 60% had been covered by the state-federal Medicaid program.
The state is also starting a pilot program to visit new moms at home during pregnancy and for the first year after birth. The $1.7 million pilot program will focus on five rural counties in northeast Georgia and 16 rural counties in southeast Georgia. Diane Durrence, who directs the department's division of Women, Children and Nursing Services, said Tuesday that half the staff has already been hired, with plans to focus on women with high risk or chronic health problems.
“Our target population is low-income women who are living in these counties," Durrence said.