Illinois receives nearly $1.5M to improve maternal health care

(WIFR) – The United States government pumps $1.5 million into Illinois to help improve maternal and infant health care around the state. This first round of funds will go to the University of Illinois-Chicago.

“The vision there is that we should actually become the safest country in the world for a mom to have a baby in,” states Jordan Grossman, the Health Resources and Services Administration deputy administrator.

“Unacceptable” is the word from the Health Resources and Services Administration as it unveils the number of maternal deaths over the past several years.

“We in the United States have much higher rates than folks in other parts of the world, and we also see pretty significant disparities by race and by economics when it comes to mom’s and their outcomes,” explains Grossman.

The organization is working to combat this issue through a special program that will specifically focus on the health of mothers and babies, both before and after birth.

“It gives funding to states across the country and in this case in Illinois, to come together, figure out what are the challenges, and then figure out what are we going to do, what works best for our state or our community to solve them,” says Grossman.

Some of the groups efforts also include a national maternal mental health hot line, expanding Home Visiting services, expanding Healthy Start services, growing and diversifying the perinatal workforce including doulas, investing in new community health center efforts to address maternal health disparities, and supporting maternal health care in rural communities.

“We take what’s working and replicate it and expand it across the state and across the country,” explains Grossman. “If we do that, then we would actually be able to achieve that goal in the White House blueprint.”

Naomi Kotarski is a three-year patient at University of Illinois-Chicago. She hopes her experience as a new mom can be spread to other moms across the state. She also hopes with the new funding, more awareness can be spread about maternal and infant health.

“If the education is not out there, how many people are going to die? You know, we have to make it an educated society to make sure we are educated family by family and personally,” says Kotarski.

According to the the Illinois Department of Public Health, an average of 88 women die each year while pregnant or within one year of pregnancy.

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