Maternal Health Accountability Act

On Mother's Day I saw an interview with Christy Turlington Burns about her documentary No Woman, No Cry. The film follows the stories of pregnant women in the US, Bangladesh and a couple other countries. It's amazing what obstacles they face - I felt frightened for them. I'm a fan on FB of the organization EVERY MOTHER COUNTS and this is a quote from the page.

"Turlington Burns, a mother, activist, women’s health advocate and fashion icon, made the film in conjunction with EVERY MOTHER COUNTS (EMC), a five-year outreach campaign she founded in 2010 that is dedicated to improving maternal health and reducing maternal mortality around the world by engaging the public, raising awareness and driving action." Since seeing the film I have been doing some reading on maternity issues and came across this info/website link/petition.

While maternal mortality has decreased by 30% worldwide, the rate of death from pregnancy or childbirth has nearly doubled in the U.S. since 1990.[1] Furthermore, data show that African American women in the U.S. are approximately four times as likely to die during childbirth as Caucasian women even when their health status is similar.[2]

How is this possible in our nation?

Join me in demanding an answer now!  Use our one-click tool to contact your members of Congress and ask them to co-sponsor the Maternal Health Accountability Act:  http://action.momsrising.org/go/1049?akid=2830.38501.NUiMiv&t=4

The Maternal Health Accountability Act (HR 894) would give states the resources they need to report and investigate all pregnancy-related deaths as well as create a panel of medical experts to review the data and recommend strategies to reduce maternal deaths. This is a critical first step to preventing so many women from dying from pregnancy-related complications in our nation. After all, without information about why women are dying, we cannot adequately respond.

Currently, hundreds of women in the U.S. die each year as a result of pregnancy and childbirth.  In fact, 49 countries around the world do a better job of preventing women from dying from pregnancy-related complications than the U.S. [3] Despite these terrible statistics, we do not have adequate information about exactly how many women are dying and why. Currently, only six states require reporting of pregnancy-related deaths and 29 states and the District of Columbia have no mechanism in place to review maternal deaths.[4]

MomsRising members have already sent more than 42,000 letters to Congress urging action on the Maternal Mortality Act. We want to nearly double our impact and generate 75,000 letters to Congress before we deliver copies of the letters later this month.