Congratulations! Good luck! See you in six weeks…
Sound familiar? Anyone who has had a baby has heard those words. Toward the end of pregnancy, parents are seen in the office weekly and once the baby is out, the support ends for multiple weeks. It is at that moment that these parents need the support more than anything.
The focus after birth changes from care for the birthing person to the newborn. Everyone wants pictures of the new baby, is curious about weight, length, and how healthy they are. Very rarely do people check in on the new parent, how are they healing? Are they getting any rest?
Over 20% of maternal mortality happens from weeks one to six postpartum and healthcare workers are not capturing this time period as new parents are generally instructed to make a six week postpartum follow-up appointment and nothing in between. We spend a fair amount of time instructing new parents on signs and symptoms to report but how often are these people really following through.
According to the CDC’s Vital Statistics System, in 2022 the Maternal Mortality rate in Connecticut was 15.6 per 100,000 births, while less than the overall U.S. rate of 23.2 per 100,000 births is still astounding and way too high. If postpartum patients were seen at more regular intervals post delivery, these rates could be decreased dramatically as complications would be caught earlier.
Instead of waiting for a full six weeks to pass, a better plan would include postpartum visits at one week, three weeks, and six weeks, with availability to schedule more if necessary. These should be seen as preventative care visits, not sick visits, and should not be subject to co-pays and additional fees. These visits should be standard and not based on issues that arise during pregnancy, labor, delivery, or postpartum. Not only do providers need to complete a physical exam, but a postpartum depression screening is also vital.
The U.S. Preventing Maternal Deaths Reauthorization Act of 2023 has passed in the House and is under review by the Senate. The goal of this act is to reauthorize Federal support of states in their work to save and sustain the health of mothers during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period, to eliminate disparities in maternal health outcomes for pregnancy-related and pregnancy-associated deaths, to identify solutions to improve health care quality and health outcomes for mothers, and for other purposes. This law allows state committees to review pregnancy-associated deaths and help prevent them in the future.
While the idea of additional postpartum follow-up appointments is not blatantly mentioned in this act, if the state committees determine that this follow-up is so incredibly important, it can save lives.
We, as a country, can facilitate calls to our senators and encourage them to vote yes for this bill to help decrease pregnancy-related morbidity and mortality. Everyone knows someone who has given birth and understands that people want a healthy mom and healthy baby.
Michelle Herens RN is from Bristol.