Maternal mortality factors highlighted in federal agency map
23rd December 2024 · 0 Comments
By Lorena O’Neil
Contributing Writer
(lailluminator.com) — The Federal Communications Commission has launched an overhauled, comprehensive maternal health map that overlays data about broadband internet access with maternal health outcomes and indicators including food insecurity, gestational diabetes and hypertension.
The revised map’s debut Thursday comes at a pivotal time for reproductive health advocates, as the suppression of maternal medical research comes into the spotlight.
Earlier this year, Georgia fired its entire maternal mortality review board after news about multiple preventable deaths in the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade leaked to ProPublica, sparking public outcry.
Texas announced its maternal mortality review panel would not be looking at deaths from 2022 and 2023, the first two years after the state banned abortions.
“The data is very clear – the United States has a problem when it comes to maternal mortality,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel told the Illuminator in an exclusive phone interview this week. “If we want to solve this problem, the first thing we have to do is measure it.”
The U.S. has the worst maternal health outcomes of any high-income country worldwide and disproportionately impacts women of color, with three Black women dying for every white woman, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“There are new and emerging tools in telemedicine that can help with pregnancy, and we have mapped where [internet] service is and is not,” Rosenworcel said. “And now laid on top of that all kinds of factors that contribute to healthy pregnancies and maternal mortality. Smart people can study this and start identifying what solutions we can encourage.”
The map is the product of an FCC broadband health task force that began tracking the intersection of broadband connectivity and health in 2016, adding a focus on maternal health in June 2023, in response to Congress’s bipartisan Data Mapping to Save Mom’s Lives Act. However, county- and parish-level maternal mortality and morbidity data from the CDC are often not made publicly available to protect the privacy of mothers and their families. If there are few maternal deaths in a particular geography, all of the data might be completely suppressed, but experts say these numbers can have a statistical impact.
This means that this updated map can help more properly display vulnerable places –such as a rural area with low-internet access that’s at a higher risk for gestational diabetes in Appalachia – so that stakeholders can specifically see where more resources are needed.
The map now features variables that show where risks to a mother’s physical and mental health are increasing. They include gestational diabetes, hypertension and obesity. Infant health outcomes and breast cancer are also detailed. In addition to maternal health data, the revised map can be used as a tool to analyze opioid misuse, cancer and other chronic diseases.
When the FCC announced the map’s revamp in October, Dr. Veronica Gillispie-Bell, director of maternal mortality review for the Louisiana Department of Health, took part in the announcement to speak about its importance. She explained that the majority of maternal deaths don’t happen in pregnancy, but rather in the first six weeks and up to a year after delivery.
“Most patients are disconnected from health care during that time, and when we look at these deaths, the majority of them are preventable,” Gillispie-Bell said. “This is a public health crisis, and that means it requires a multidisciplinary approach that not only addresses improving clinical quality of care, but also systems of care as well as social factors impacting care.”
She explained that 80 percent of clinical outcomes are the result of non-medical factors that can impact health outcomes, such as racism, poverty or a lack of equal access to resources.
“Access to broadband is another social determinant of health. We stand at the precipice of a solution to our maternal health crisis.”
Rosenworcel pointed out that the COVID-19 pandemic helped normalize telemedicine as a way to connect people with health care providers. She hopes it can also lead to more healthy pregnancies by offering resources to patients, especially in rural areas, who face challenges with accessing childcare and transportation to get to their routine visits.
Rosenworcel, the first woman and mother to serve as FCC chair, said she knows, more than any of her predecessors, how many doctor visits there are leading up to birth.
“There’s all kinds of impediments that can get in your way, even if you’re someone who has a lot of resources,” she said. “And what I learned from talking to a lot of healthcare providers in the field is that some of those activities could be done virtually if they provide the individual with pulse oximeters and ways to actually take measurements and keep their provider updated about their pregnancy.”
Rosenworcel points out that, particularly in a rural community, having access to high-speed internet and telehealth can mean a patient could catch high-risk pregnancy complications sooner, and their doctor can act accordingly.
“It’s the difference between someone having a healthy pregnancy or not,” she said.
Gillispie-Bell, an OB-GYN based in Kenner, runs Connected MOM, a telehealth program provided through Ochsner Health System. She said the FCC has done “tremendous work” with this interactive mapping platform.
Louisiana has one of the worst maternal mortality rates in the country. Looking at the map, state residents have less broadband access on average compared with the rest of the country. This means the state has a “double burden” where those risks intersect, placing such communities at higher risk for maternal deaths.
“As we continue to innovate methods to improve maternal outcomes in Louisiana, we must address broadband access,” Gillispie-Bell said.
The presidential administration changes in January, meaning a new FCC chair will take Rosenworcel’s place. She pointed out that the Data Mapping to Save Mom’s Lives Act had bipartisan support.
“Everyone with power and authority should identify what they can do to help,” she said. “There’s a lot more we’re going to have to do, but we have to start grabbing every solution that’s available, and this map demonstrates that there are opportunities.”
This article originally published in the December 23, 2024 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
