Source: United States Senator for New Jersey Bob Menendez
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Bob Menendez and Cory Booker (both D-N.J.) introduced a resolution recognizing January 23 as Maternal Health Awareness Day. In 2018, New Jersey became the first state to recognize January 23 as Maternal Health Awareness Day through the work of the Tara Hansen Foundation, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, and other vital organizations that work to help spread awareness and stop maternal mortality. Since that time, state, advocacy and community-based organizations, and others have used January 23 as a day to raise awareness about maternal health, educate health care providers about maternal mortality, and encourage birthing people, families and providers to recognize and discuss potential signs of an emergency.
“Improving maternal health in New Jersey and across the country remains a high priority as we begin the 118th Congress, specifically, we must continue to raise awareness on maternal mortality as the vast majority of cases are highly preventable,” said Sen. Menendez, a senior member of the Senate Finance Committee that sets national health policy. “I’m proud to join in this effort with Senator Booker to shine light on the causes of death during and after pregnancy and shape policies to help reduce maternal mortality crisis in the U.S. Today, more than ever, women deserve to have access to a wide array of affordable, quality health care services that they need as they experience their pregnancy.”
“The United States not only leads in having the highest maternal mortality rate among developed countries, but it is the only OECD member that has seen an increase in maternal mortality over the last few decades,” said Sen. Booker. “This public health crisis disproportionately harms Indigenous and Black individuals—who are two and three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes—and it has only worsened due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We must take urgent action to address this growing crisis and alarming disparities in our health care system.”
“It takes a village to raise a child — but first we must deliver a healthy child to a healthy mom, and that takes all of us,”said Heidi Murkoff, author of What to Expect When You’re Expecting and founder of the What to Expect Project. “Tragically, we are collectively failing. As the wealthiest nation in the world, the U.S. should also be the safest place in the world to be pregnant and give birth — yet we are consistently among the least safe, with rates of maternal mortality and serious injury continuing to grow at an alarming rate, with far higher rates for Black, AI/AN and rural moms. As the foundation of all health — including economic health –– it’s time to make maternal health the national priority it should be. That’s why this January 23rd, the WTEP and I are proud to support Maternal Health Awareness Day and honored to work beside Senator Booker and other maternal health champions in this call for both awareness and action. So that we can finally end our nation’s epidemic of preventable maternal deaths and deliver a healthy beginning and healthy future to every mom, everywhere.”
“United States Senator Cory Booker continues to be a champion for improving maternal health care by sponsoring a resolution submitted to the US Senate which designates January 23, 2023 as a national ‘Maternal Health Awareness Day’,” said Joseph J. Apuzzio, Director of Maternal Fetal Medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. “It will go a long way in raising public awareness about maternal morbidity, mortality, and disparities in maternal health in order to reduce adverse outcomes and improve maternal care.”
Sens. Menendez and Booker’s resolution notes that more than 80 percent of maternal deaths are preventable and recognizes community-based maternal health models that have been proven to improve the health of birthing people throughout the country. With one-third of maternal mortality cases occurring between one week and one year postpartum, expanding access to health care after delivery nationwide is a vital step to saving the lives of new birthing people.
Full text of the resolution can be found here.
###