Budget hearings at the start of Georgia’s legislative session saw state departments dive into Gov. Brian Kemp’s  proposed budget and make a case for funding priorities.

The Maternal Levels of Care program from the Joint Commission designates facilities by available services for moms and babies, expanding a public health health program meant to improve perinatal outcomes. 

Georgia doctors say telehealth monitoring of pregnant people provides better better, more frequent access to maternity care.

The nation has the highest rate of maternal mortality among wealthy countries. A long-standing program, Nurse-Family Partnership, which supports new parents, works to address this deadly trend.

By remotely monitoring and educating new moms after they go home, providers are catching potentially fatal conditions, like heart failure and stroke.

On the Friday Dec. 9 episode of Georgia Today: Michael Flynn testifies in Atlanta, another EV battery plant is coming to Georgia, and pregnancy-related deaths are on the rise.

In Georgia, Black mothers die three times more often than their white counterparts. Making more birth support available could improve outcomes.

Dr. Miriam Rittmeyer gave a talk on the Manchichi Program, which provides formal medical training to indigenous midwives in Guatemala and Panama.

More than half of these deaths occur well after the mom leaves the hospital. To save lives, mothers need more support in the "fourth trimester, that time after the baby is born," one researcher says.

Laws banning abortion in many conservative U.S. states are expected to boost birth rates among adolescents, whose bodies often aren't built for safe childbirth, or for carrying a pregnancy to term.

Health care systems leaders who attended the Black Directors Health Equity Agenda conference this week in Atlanta learned that Black women are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than white women. 

Many of the states that are moving to ban abortion tend to have less access to health care, worse maternal and infant health care outcomes and weaker social supports for children and families.

One popular measure would extend Medicaid to one year after a woman’s pregnancy ends, up from six months of coverage. The other proposal, Senate Bill 496, would require autopsies when the woman’s cause of death is unclear, which may upset some grieving families.  

The state Senate unanimously approved a bill Monday extending Medicaid coverage from six months to a year for low-income postpartum women.

Black women in Georgia are nearly three times more likely to die during childbirth than white women.