To Support Black Maternal Health Caucus’s bills on maternal mortality and morbidity

Melbourne, FL – March 10, 2020 – The Preeclampsia Foundation has announced its support for the Black Maternal Health Caucus’s (BMHC) Momnibus, a set of nine individual bills critically important to solving our nation's maternal health crisis. Co-led by Congresswomen Lauren Underwood and Alma Adams, the new bills, introduced by different BMHC members, address the unique dimensions of the Black maternal health crisis in the United States.

“The crisis, at the center of the U.S. maternal health crisis, is that black women are having worse outcomes and are more likely to die as a result of a maternal health complication”, says CEO Eleni Tsigas.  “These women are not statistics, they are our daughters, sisters, wives and friends.”

Tsigas said the Momnibus speaks to the priorities of the Preeclampsia Foundation including:

• addressing disparities amongst black and other racial and ethnic populations to improve access to needed treatments and access to perinatal and postpartum care
• use of remote monitoring technologies
• realizing the need for maternal mental health for those with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy
• support for implementing the Alliance for Innovation in Maternal Health (AIM) bundles, the evidence based best practices of care for hospitals and healthcare providers
• engaging the patient during the course of her care
• use of patient/family input into data collection (including Maternal Mortality Review Committees (MMRC)
• seeking patient input in the development of quality metrics

 “As a patient advocacy organization, we are particularly pleased that the patient voice is represented.  Capturing the lived experience of the patient and incorporating the patient/family voice in data collection and quality measure development is crucial to solving this crisis”, concluded Tsigas.

About the Preeclampsia Foundation:  The Preeclampsia Foundation is a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization established in 2000. It is dedicated to providing patient support and education, raising public awareness, catalyzing research, and improving healthcare practices, envisioning a world where preeclampsia and related hypertensive disorders of pregnancy no longer threaten the lives of mothers and babies. For more information, visit www.preeclampsia.org