Mrs. Gillibrand proposed the Maternal CARE Act to the Senate on April 20, 2021, before Mrs. Gillibrand moved it to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. When adopted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress convened, the legislature’s goal is to assist states in existing efforts to eliminate unnecessary morbidity and death in maternity services. The stakeholders will accomplish this via evidence-based performance improvement to preserve women’s health during pregnancy, delivery, and postnatal care and minimize newborn fatalities. In addition, the Maternal Care Act is intended to decrease racial inequalities in maternal health outcomes. The following paper will review literature examining the issue of ease of access to maternity care related to the Maternal Care Act. In addition, the evaluation will include an examination of statistical data about the issue above, the demographic most affected, and the health effect of both the problem and the Act. The following essay will also discuss the involvement of nurses in the passage of the Maternal Care Act.
The pregnancy-related mortality rate in the U.S is some of the worst in the industrialized world, according to (Collier, 2019). Around 700 American women die annually due to difficulties during pregnancy, delivery, or postnatal care, and an extra 50,000 are gravely wounded. (Tikkanen, Gunja, FitzGerald, and Zephyrin, 2020) state that it is believed that with improved treatment, around 60% of maternal deaths in the United States may be avoided, and half of the maternal injuries might be minimized or eliminated.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Black women are three to four times more likely than caucasian women to perish from pregnancy-related reasons (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2021). According to (Petersen, Davis, Goodman, Cox, Mayes, Johnston, & Barfield, 2019), there are 42.8 fatalities per 100,000 births for African American women compared to 13 deaths per 100,000 live births for White women and 17.2 deaths per 100,000 live births for females countrywide. For the past six decades, Black women have had a greater risk of maternal death than White women. In the United States, black women are twice as likely as white women to experience life-threatening pregnancy problems. Maternal death rates among Black women are high across wealth, scholarly achievements, and socioeconomic position; however, complications, including an absence of availability to maternity care and physical health problems, may not entirely explain the racial discrepancy in maternal mortality.
Evidence from (Taylor, 2020) indicates that stress from racial oppression causes illnesses such as hypertension and pre-eclampsia, which lead to negative maternal health consequences among African American women. In the health care system, there is widespread systemic racism against Black women and uneven treatment of Black women, frequently resulting in poor pain management and rejection of cultural norms around health.
The Maternity Care Act in the United States has greatly improved access to maternity care experts in areas where they are most needed. For example, the Act, as mentioned earlier, has resulted in the creation of the National Health Service Corps, guaranteeing that maternity care services are adequately distributed to places in desperate need of them, the legislature resulting in advances in maternal health. One example is the dramatic drop in child mortality in areas with a paucity of maternal healthcare. As a result of the number of lives saved in such areas, the capacity to deliver high-quality maternity care to females during pregnancy and childbirth is beneficial (Zundel, 2022).
Nurses play a critical role in guaranteeing that the country’s healthcare system continues to improve. Numerous nurses in the nation are already aware of the system’s shortcomings and the adjustments required to revitalize the industry. The nurses have various experiences on the job that have shaped their opinions about lobbying for reforms in the industry. Nurses’ advocacy involves methods, regulations, and policy modifications that can help manage the healthcare system. Some analysts believe that existing nursing groups, like the American Nurses Association (ANA), had a vital role in persuading senators to support the Maternal Care Act submitted in Congress by Mrs. Gillibrand (Buerhaus, 2018).
Furthermore, for the bill to be approved, the nurses conducted a study on the supply and accessibility of maternity care countrywide and presented their results to legislators. Researchers note that nurse studies found a scarcity of healthcare experts in various locations throughout the country. Thanks to such research, it was simple to deploy maternal health workers to locations where they were most needed. Furthermore, officials were able to identify the best measures for increasing access to maternity care in the United States of America as a result of the research.
In conclusion, in recent years, there has been a significant emphasis on rural maternal health at the municipal, regional, and federal standards in the United States of America. Furthermore, the country has seen a considerable increase in maternal mortality rates among Black women compared to Caucasian American women throughout the same period. One may claim that the low-income condition of most people is among the reasons why the nation still has a shortage of healthcare services. The issue, as mentioned above, is a key source of concern regarding the country’s health difficulties. Improving accessibility to Maternity Care has tremendously aided in simply identifying geographical areas needing more health experts, notwithstanding their scarcity. The nurses were instrumental in the campaign to push for and conduct studies on maternity care availability, which contributed to the passage of the legislation. The nurses harnessed outcomes and persuaded lawmakers through their research and campaigning on maternity care accessibility.
References
Buerhaus, P. (2018). Nurse practitioners: A solution to America’s primary care crisis. American Enterprise Institute, pp. 1–30.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2021. Web.
Collier, A. R. Y., & Molina, R. L. (2019). Maternal mortality in the United States: updates on trends, causes, and solutions. Neoreviews, 20(10), e561-e574.
Petersen, E. E., Davis, N. L., Goodman, D., Cox, S., Mayes, N., Johnston, E., … & Barfield, W. (2019). Vital signs: pregnancy-related deaths, United States, 2011–2015, and strategies for prevention, 13 states, 2013–2017. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 68(18), 423.
Taylor, J. K. (2020). Structural racism and maternal health among Black women. Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 48(3), 506–517.
Tikkanen, R., Gunja, M. Z., FitzGerald, M., & Zephyrin, L. (2020). Maternal mortality and maternity care in the United States compared to 10 other developed countries. The Commonwealth Fund, p. 10.
Zundel, R. S. (2022). Inadequate Maternal Health Care for Women in the United States. Ballard Brief, 2022(2), 10.
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