Reproductive Equity Now Celebrates House Passage of Maternal Health Care Package
BOSTON (June 20, 2024) – Reproductive Equity Now released the following statement today after the Massachusetts House of Representatives voted to advance a bold legislative package to address the maternal health crisis. The legislation includes several of Reproductive Equity Now’s legislative priorities, including provisions to create a pathway to licensure for Certified Professional Midwives and to instruct the Department of Public Health (DPH) to update and revise the regulations that govern freestanding birth centers in the state. A maternal health package has also advanced to the Senate Ways & Means Committee.
“We are thrilled that the Massachusetts Legislature is acting boldly to address the worsening maternal health crisis in the state, and we are grateful to Speaker Mariano, and Chairs Decker and Lawn for their work to advance this critically important package today. With an abortion-related case before the Supreme Court that could have devastating consequences for maternal health nationwide, the state is once again taking proactive action to improve birthing outcomes and advance reproductive equity in the state,” said Rebecca Hart Holder, President of Reproductive Equity Now. “Right now in Massachusetts, racial disparities in birthing outcomes are increasing, out of hospital birthing options are becoming a needle in a haystack, and health care costs are on the rise. But we have a solution in front of us that can help address these intersecting crises. The provisions in this package have been proven to improve birthing experiences for Black and brown birthing people, lower health care costs, expand the maternal health care workforce, and give pregnant people the ability to decide how and where to give birth with dignity. Today marks a big step in the fight to improve birthing outcomes, and we now look forward to working with the Senate to get this package across the finish line this session.”
A July 2023 Massachusetts DPH report showed that maternal morbidity nearly doubled in the state from 2011 to 2020. Black women were 2.3 times more likely than white women to experience labor and delivery complications. Studies have shown that access to licensed midwives leads to lower mortality rates in both mothers and infants, reduced C-section rates, and increased breastfeeding rates, and that midwifery care reduces racial inequities in maternal health outcomes.
Access to adequate and equitable maternal health care is also severely lacking in Massachusetts, further exacerbated by eleven maternity ward closures across the state since 2010. Two freestanding birth centers, Cambridge Birth Center and North Shore Birth Center, have also ceased operations, leaving only one birth center in Massachusetts (Seven Sisters in Northampton). Massachusetts ranks 35th out of 44 states for share of births in birth centers. New Hampshire has four birth centers and Maine has three, both states with 80% fewer births each year than Massachusetts.
###
