State Legislation
March For Moms advocates for state reforms including:
- Extending Medicaid coverage to one year post-partum for all pregnant women
- Medicaid coverage for doula services
- Integration of perinatal behavioral health services throughout pregnancy, birth and post-partum care
- Improved data, transparency and quality improvement efforts for maternal mortality and morbidity
There are a number of great resources to learn more about how your state compares on maternal health outcomes and efforts.
What Can I do?
Call your representatives
- Use information available on March For Moms website to familiarize yourself with statistics.
- Review the links below (in Helpful Resources) to familiarize yourself with your state’s data on maternal health outcomes, if the state has a Maternal Mortality Review Committee and perinatal quality collaborative, and if the state has expanded Medicaid coverage to all moms.
- Find your State Representatives here.
- Find your Congressperson here.
- Contact their office via email or phone to schedule an appointment with the Representative or Senator. If they are unavailable, ask to speak with the legislative aid for health.
- Bring attention to the issue of maternal mortality during your visit, legislators must know this is a big issue.
- Share a personal story! Whether you are a mom/family that struggled with pregnancy or postpartum period or someone who is passionate about the issue, it does not matter! Legislators and their aides love to get to know YOU! They are elected to serve your community.
HELPFUL RESOURCES
- State Maternal Mortality Review Committees
- State Birth Outcome Data
- State Quality Improvement Efforts
- State Medicaid Reform Efforts
- State Maternal Mental Health Reforms
- Hospital-level Maternity Care Quality Scores
OTHER USEFUL RESOURCES
- Contact information for your US Senators is available here: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
- Contact information for your US House Representative is available here: http://www.house.gov/representatives/
- If you are unsure of your Congressional district, you can search for it here: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/map
- Another good source for contact information is: http://bebusinessed.com/congress-fax-numbers/