Georgia birthing hospitals are first to adopt AIM's cardiac maternal health care recommendations

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FILE - A doctor uses a hand-held Doppler probe on a pregnant woman to measure the heartbeat of the fetus, Dec. 17, 2021, in Jackson, Miss.

Credit: (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)

Georgia's birthing hospitals are the first in the nation to implement recommendations from the Alliance for Innovation in Maternal Health (AIM) concerning cardiac conditions in obstetrical care, according to a new report from NORC at the University of Chicago.

The private, nonprofit, nonpartisan foundation's report provides a retrospective analysis of what is and what is not working to enhance maternal health care in Georgia, said Ky Lindberg, vice president of Georgia Health Initiative, the organization that commissioned the report. 

• READ: Georgia won’t say who’s now serving on its maternal mortality committee after dismissing all members last year

The former CEO of Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition of Georgia, Lindberg said she knew that a lot progress had been made with maternal health care, but there had been little conversation about what had been done and how those policy or program decisions are affecting change in communities throughout the state.

They took the opportunity to look with fresh eyes at a decade's worth of recommendations from the state's Maternal Mortality Review Committee (MMRC), cross-referencing those to identify whether any had been implemented, Lindberg said, adding that she's surprised this sort of work wasn't done regularly.

"We've met with over 50 partner organizations from state agencies to legislators to nonprofit leaders, individuals with lived experiences, to try to understand where we were, relative to maternal health," Lindberg said.

Out of the 15 recommendations in the report, two were fully implemented: the extension of postpartum Medicaid to 12 months and adoption of patient safety "bundles" from AIM specifically for maternal cardiac care, said Dr. Keisha Callins, who is one of the only practicing OB-GYNs in Twiggs, Jones and other counties in rural Middle Georgia.

"This is a big deal for Georgia," Callins said about the state being the first in the nation to implement the maternal cardiac care recommendations. "Maternal deaths from cardiovascular diseases is the second top category for where we lose our moms during the first year after pregnancy."

The perinatal psychiatry inpatient program was not funded and there was no increase in Medicaid provider reimbursement and coverage for psychotherapy, the report shows, but the remaining recommendations have been partially implemented.