HRSA leaders visit Centreville to discuss rural maternal health on national awareness day

CENTREVILLE, Ala. (WBMA) — Federal leaders from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) visited Centreville in Bibb County for National Rural Health Day. Roughly 40 people were in attendance for a roundtable discussion. This is part of the national enhancing maternal health initiative tour.

The roundtable discussion included leaders from HRSA of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in addition to health care leaders who advance maternal care in rural communities. Families and women served by HRSA programs, HRSA funded healthcare providers, community based-based organizations and community leaders working to address maternal and infant health in Alabama were also present.

“We are so excited to be here in Alabama today to bring together grantees who are doing work here to improve maternal and child health. Those are programs we fund out of health resources and services administration to make sure regardless of where people live, they have access to strong prenatal care, a safe high quality labor and delivery and the best chance at a healthy and successful first year of life,” said Dr. Michael Warren, Associate Administrator for the Maternal and Child Health Bureau at HRSA.

Dr. Warren said the programs and support offered by HRSA provide ‘invaluable’ prenatal care so people get the healthcare they need to have the best possibly pregnancy and birth moving forward.

“We know that folks who live in rural areas can face barriers in accessing care. Whether that is prenatal care, whether that’s labor and delivery services,” said Warren. “We are in the midst of a maternal health crisis in this country. When you look at the number of women who die every year, either during child birth or in that first year following child birth. When we look at the percentage of babies born low birth weight, or infant mortality rates, babies who die during this first year of life. We’ve got a lot of work to do. These grantees who are here today are doing amazing work here in Alabama and we are excited to learn from them,” said Warren.

Warren explained that during this roundtable, they have the chance to hear from partners about what is working well and what the challenges are. The goal is to improve maternal health around the state.

“One of the things we hear over and over at these events, is the power of partnerships in communities. We’ve seen for example when a health center sits across the table from a home visiting program, they think about opportunities to make referrals between the two,” said Warren.

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The initiative focuses on 11 states, as well as Washington D.C., where HRSA has significant investments. Other states in addition to Alabama, include Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina and Oregon. HRSA said there are significant opportunities for partnerships and collaborations, in addition to a high need.

Tom Morris, HRSA’s associate administrator for rural health policy said with it being Rural Health Day, this roundtable event was a good example of enhancing maternal health initiatives, in addition to providing the opportunity to learn and listen.

“One of the big challenges we are having nationally is fewer and fewer rural counties have hospitals that offer obstetric services,” said Morris, explaining that longer distances to travel increases risks.

“59% of rural counties don’t have a hospital that offers obstetric services,” said Morris. “Everybody deserves access to care. Anything we can do with our programs and our policies to help communities make sure they can have a functioning rural hospital, have strong primary care, access to health services. All of those are critically important. I know it’s important to folks here and it’s important to us as well.”

The roundtable took place at Cahaba Medical Care in Centreville. John Waits, a family physician and CEO of Cahaba Medical Care said they have 27 locations around central Alabama which is ‘providing an eco system where they can serve patients who need affordable access to primary care particularly women and children in that critical part of life.’

Waits has been in Bibb County for 21 years.

“That has been one of the key things we have been focused on, is bringing infant care, well baby care and prenatal care and local delivery now since Bibb County opened their labor and delivery in 2015,” said Morris.

Waits said it’s a good opportunity that HRSA has taken notice of various places, like here, that have been trying to take care of women and children. He explained in Addition to Cahaba Medical Care in Bibb County, there were various stakeholders from the state participating in the discussion, including from Central Alabama, Tuscaloosa and Mobile.

“HRSA has sponsored a lot of different family medicine OB training programs. There’s 3-4 different places that are training family doctors to go do advanced women health in clinics like Cahaba Medical Care, in hospital systems in rural and urban, and it is so important to bring this sort of attention to women and children as we see, some ten different rural labor and deliveries have closed over the last decade in Alabama, we need those labor and deliveries to stay open for our trainees to go practice there, to keep communities whole in terms of taking care of women and children,” said Waits. “I hope HRSA’s attention on the state will get some attention for the care of women and children in our communities.”

The Enhancing Maternal Health Initiative is focused on implementing the White House Blueprint for addressing the maternal health crisis. This includes strengthening, expanding and accelerating federal investments to address maternal mortality and maternal health disparities.

In 2022, the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline was launched, which providers 24/7 emotional and mental health support to expectant and new mothers and their families. People can call or text 833-TLC-MAMA for support.

According to a news release, HRSA also secured legislation to double the federal investment and expand voluntary, evidence-based home visiting services for eligible families across the country. Through the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program, local organizations can provide home visits from nurses, social workers, and other trained health workers who work with families to improve maternal and child health, child development and school readiness.