Dr. Lisa Green, CEO and founder of Harvey-based Family Christian Health Center, is well aware of national statistics showing Black women are three times as likely to die due to pregnancy related complications than white women.

At a kickoff event last week in Springfield for Black Maternal Health Week, she and other physicians put the spotlight on what’s needed to prevent these avoidable deaths and improve Black maternal health.

“From statistics to solutions, that was the whole goal,” Green said in an interview last week.

Among those solutions is the need for a complete ecosystem of care for women, said Green. That includes providing at-risk women with access to an integrated care system that includes obstetricians, maternal fetal medicine specialists, nurses, midwives and doulas, who are trained to provide physical, emotional and educational support to pregnant women before, during and after childbirth, she and other physicians said.

Dr. Jamie Horn, an obstetrician and gynecologist, chair of obstetrics at UChicago Medicine and attending obstetrician at Family Christian Health Center, says preconception counseling is also needed.

“I want to make sure women are in the best health possible before they get pregnant,” she said.

That means if they have high blood pressure or diabetes, making sure those conditions are under control, and if they are obese, getting them in better shape before they get pregnant. The healthier women are before pregnancy, the healthier they can be during pregnancy and postpartum, she said.

Flossmoor resident Dr. Shelley Amuh, an obstetrician-gynecologist and founder of The Puddle Project, a mentorship program for pregnant teens, stresses the importance of providing increased access to diagnostics for pregnant women including Level 2 ultrasounds, which provide much more detailed information.

Access to ultrasound testing varies depending on what hospital accepts what Medicaid health plans, said Dr. Cheryl Rucker-Whitaker, president of CINQCare Illinois, who also spoke at the event.

“Women should be able to go the nearest facility with an available appointment,” she said. “Additionally, we need to invest in mobile facilities that can get to maternity deserts and provide these higher-level diagnostics.”

Transportation is also a barrier to access to care, physicians said. They suggested the establishment of Uber waivers for women during their pregnancies and postpartum.

Women on the South Side of Chicago and in the south suburbs are at a particular disadvantage in accessing care given the closure of hospital obstetrics units in recent years, including at Advocate South Suburban Hospital in Hazel Crest and Holy Cross Hospital on the South Side, they said.

Concerns about maternal death rates among Black women and the barriers to quality care at-risk pregnant Black women and their babies face in the south suburbs led Family Christian Health Center to open the Family Christian Health Center Maternal and Child Health Center in Harvey three years ago. Green expected the center to serve 1,200 patients annually.

Last year, the center served 3,210 patients, her office shared. The center recently acquired Level 2 ultrasound diagnostic equipment thanks to funding secured by U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, who has long focused on maternal health disparities, and expects to begin providing those services in the next month, Green said.

Black Maternal Health Week, which runs through April 17, is an opportunity to raise awareness and discuss solutions, Kelly and other maternal health care advocates said.

“We always want to educate people, who so ever is listening, about the issue of Black maternal health. People are still discovering that it’s still an issue,” Kelly said, noting the overwhelming majority of pregnancy related deaths are preventable.

Kelly has introduced legislation, the Community Access, Resources and Empowerment for Moms Act, that among other actions would:

• establish a state-based perinatal quality collaborative grant program

•  establish regional centers of excellence to tackle implicit bias and promote cultural competence among health professionals

•  establish grants for rural obstetric mobile units

•  support federal efforts to grow and diversify the workforce of doulas

•  extend Medicaid coverage for postpartum mothers in all 50 states.

Kelly noted Illinois became the first state in the nation to extend full Medicaid benefits from 60 days to 12 months postpartum. Since that occurred in 2021, 45 states and Washington, D.C. have extended the Medicaid postpartum coverage period to a full year.

She applauded Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s proposal earlier this year to include a $23 million investment in the state’s fiscal 2025 budget to advance maternal health and address disparities.

The plan includes a proposed $4.4 million allocation for the Illinois Department of Public Health to create a statewide strategic plan and distribute birth equity resource building grants to support the needs of community-based reproductive health care providers. It also includes a $5 million increase in funding for the Department of Human Services Home Visiting Program.

“Illinois is emerging as a leader in this space,” Kelly said. “Funding is critical.”

Illinois state Sen. Lakesia Collins, D-Chicago, who joined Pritzker at the Chicago South Side Birth Center when he unveiled the budget initiatives in February, said such investments are needed to help eliminate disparities. She said in her district it’s a tale of two cities, depending on where one lives as to how easy or difficult it is to access services.

“Gov. Pritzker has expressed to our leadership this is a top priority for him,” Collins said. “Now it’s a matter of making sure we get the money appropriated. It’s really doing what we have to do as a legislature to make sure it goes through.”

Horn welcomes Pritzker’s proposed investment in community based reproductive health care providers.

Other actions needed to reduce disparities, physicians said, include providing access to mental health counseling and culturally matched therapists as well as access to telehealth mental health services. Substance abuse services and 12-weeks paid maternity leave are also needed, advocates say.

Francine Knowles is a freelance columnist for the Daily Southtown.