Maternal mortality committee draws criticism

Published 2:00 am Sunday, September 22, 2019

ATLANTA — The first study committee meeting on maternal mortality in Georgia led to backlash this week from women’s rights advocates.

The House Study Committee on maternal mortality met for the first time and committee members peppered presenters with questions on how the mortality data was collected. Lawmakers questioned the validity of the data and the collection process which shows extreme rates of maternal mortality in Georgia.

In response, House Rep. Mable Thomas, D-Atlanta, called a press conference that hosted women’s rights advocates, organizations and lobbyists expressing their disappointment in the committee meeting.

“We were a little frustrated with how we saw it going in terms of emphasis on data,” Thomas said, “rather than the fact that what we want to deal with, is we know that the issue of women period — and black women specifically — are dying, we know it can be prevented. And there has to be a lot more concern around it.”

Thomas advocated an amendment to include at least two African-American women on the panel — which was not required in the original resolution. But with the meeting ending before public testimony, Thomas said, she is concerned the voices of African-American women are being swept under the rug.

“We knew that we had to get the African-American women’s voice, in that hearing,” she said. “The fact that people came to the state Capitol because they wanted to give testimony, they wanted to have the authentic voices heard and the way the agenda was set up it did not allow that.”

An Amnesty International report in 2010 shined a spotlight on Georgia’s high maternal mortality rates, prompting a state review committee. The Georgia Maternal Mortality Review Committee has a lengthy process of reviewing potential pregnancy-related deaths, determining the actual cause and analyzing the data.

The goal, Michael Lindsey, review committee member, said, is to reduce rates by formally reviewing cases and identifying commonalities and trends.

But, Rep. Sharon Cooper, R-Maretta, co-chairman, pointed out differences in the data collection processes of Georgia versus national data collection through entities like the Center for Disease Control. Pregnancy-related deaths can be reported in Georgia up to a year after giving birth to identify if it is linked to pregnancy. National data collection only allows reports up to 42 days after.

“Georgia has a high maternal mortality ratio,” Lindsey said, “whether it’s the worst in the country, it’s bad.”

National statistics show that pregnancy-related deaths have steadily increased. Black and Hispanic women are three to four times more likely to experience pregnancy-related death than white and non-Hispanic women.

In 2014, the national rate of maternal mortality was 17 deaths per 100,000 live births. In Georgia that same year, the rate was 25.9 deaths per 100,000 live births. Aligning with national statistics, white and non-Hispanic women saw 14.3 deaths per 100,000 live births, while black and Hispanic mothers saw more than triple that rate.

Angela D. Aina, interim director of Black Mamas Matter Alliance, said she was concerned hearing a conversation about changing data collection to reflect lower numbers rather than a dialogue offering solutions to the problem.

“I was expecting to come to this study committee to hear about ways in which the public health systems and the hospital systems here in the state of Georgia could be working better and can be improving on their systematic ways of providing care in our communities,” she said during the press conference. “Instead, we were bombarded with some very alarming questions around something as important and rigorous as data collection.”

The questions, she said, seemed to focus on changing the statistics “so that the state of Georgia can look better.”

Georgia statistics are much higher than national numbers, Dr. Michael Bryan, from the Georgia Department of Public Health, said.

The Georgia maternal mortality review report analyzed 250 maternal deaths from 2012-14 and concluded 101 were pregnancy-related, Bryan said.

Of those, 60% were deemed preventable.

“In general, I think it is fair to say, a lot of these deaths were determined preventable by the committee,” Bryan said.

Denatte Glass, director of the Center for Family and Community Wellness, said part of the solution would be Georgia participating in Medicaid expansion.

“In the state of Georgia, we don’t think it’s a necessity to have Medicaid expansion,” Glass said. “So if we’re going to talk about prenatal access to services, but you’re not allowing women to have those services, we have a challenge.”

Millions of dollars have been spent on pro-life initiatives in Georgia, Glass said, it was “appalling” that the “lost lives of women” were not the topic of the committee meeting.

Rep. Thomas said $500,000 dedicated to go toward a maternal mortality study at Morehouse College is “on the chopping block” during appropriations.

“Today is the first of many responses, this is not the end,” Glass said. “If we are truly a pro-life state then the lives of women matter.”

Riley Bunch covers the Georgia Statehouse for The Valdosta Daily Times, CNHI’s newspapers and websites.