Maternal Mortality

Virtuously B’Earthed Doula Services, a St. Louis-area birthing agency, received nearly $90,000 to teach doula care this fall in Spanish, French, Somali and Arabic. The agency will provide translated manuals and training to bilingual women.

Between 2018 and 2020, more than 200 women in Missouri died during pregnancy or in the year after giving birth, according to a state health department report released this week. The number of deaths has increased since the 2022 report. The number of deaths from suicide and firearms increased, and Black women were three times as likely to die during or after pregnancy than their white counterparts.

Current Missouri law limits Medicaid postpartum care to 60 days. Under the new legislation, that coverage now lasts for a full year.

Missouri has a maternal mortality rate of 25.2 deaths per 100,000 live births, higher than the national average. Health professionals worry that the state’s near-total abortion ban will make pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period even more dangerous.

Missouri has the 8th highest maternal deaths in the country. Pre-filed bill would extend postpartum care for low-income women.

A multi-year report on maternal mortality in Missouri found that women on Medicaid are eight times more likely to die within one year of pregnancy than those with private health insurance. Black women were three times more likely to die than white women.

Missouri has one of the nation's highest maternal mortality rates. And yet, it's not among the many states taking advantage of an offer from the federal government to pay for extended Medicaid coverage for postpartum mothers.

In the U.S., Black women have the highest maternal mortality rates. St. Louis-area doctors and abortion rights advocates say if Roe v. Wade is overturned and Missouri bans abortion, Black women would be at risk.

A 5,000-square-foot birth and postpartum center focusing on Black women is coming to Ferguson. The Jamaa Birth Village Birth Center and Postpartum Retreat Haven will include three water birthing suites and four buildings where people who deliver their babies can stay up to seven days. The project is an expansion of the nearby Jamaa Birth Village.

Black infants in St. Louis County are more than twice as likely to die as white infants, according to a new report.The first Maternal and Child Health…