RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — Democratic Senator Natalie Murdock, Representative Zack Hawkins and other advocates joined together at the General Assembly Tuesday to call attention to black maternal health in North Carolina.
The state leaders introduced Senate Bill 838, also known as MOMnibus 2.5.
The bill expands the original MOMnibus bill. It includes funding for a training program for maternal health care providers, a perinatal education grant program and a training program for community health workers.
State leaders say over 700 women die each year from childbirth and another 50,000 suffer from severe complications.
Black women have the highest rate.
“Black women are 3 if not 4 times more likely to die from pregnancy related complications than white women. Here in N.C. black women are 1.8 times more likely to die from childbirth. Two-thirds of these deaths are preventable,” said Senator Murdock.
Advocates say one of the reasons for this is because pregnancy rates among black women are more likely to be miscoded.
Charity Watkins knows all too well the complications of childbirth.
She told the crowd she did everything right, often communicated with her doctor, but still had a near death experience a day after giving birth.
“Without much explanation and definitely no pain medication manually removed blood clots from my uterus. My father who was just arriving to meet his granddaughter heard my screams from the waiting area,” said Watkins.
Advocates say more needs to be done to fix the statistics.
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“Black moms and black babies deserve better. This $5 million investment is simply a downpayment. They deserve and need much more,” said Murdock.
March of Dimes gave the state a preterm birth grade of a D+ on their 2023 report card.
Highlighting this, leaders say they’ll continue to do more to help save lives.