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Inspired By A Modest North Carolina Program, New Bills Aim To Lower Maternal Mortality Rates In The U.S. | HuffPost <br />https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/maternal-mortality-rate-social-causes_us_5b87276ae4b0511db3d47c1c?4is[8/30/2018 1:42:41 PM] <br />hormone cortisol have been linked to premature birth and low birthweight. And studies <br />suggest that a lifetime of racism could account for African-Americans’ poorer birth outcomes <br />compared to those of recent African immigrants. <br />Doctors are reimbursed $50 for going through the questionnaire with patients at their first <br />prenatal appointment ― an incentive that results in about an 80 percent screening rate, said <br />Menard. <br />Then women who score high on this risk assessment are paired up with pregnancy case <br />managers, who meet with them monthly or weekly throughout their pregnancies to check up <br />on them and try to help them surmount any barriers standing in the way of their prenatal <br />appointments. <br />Care managers help connect women to counseling, sign up for food stamps or put them in <br />touch with charities that give away cribs and car seats. They can also help them work on <br />longer-term goals, like finding a new job, housing or going back to school before the baby <br />arrives. <br />Finally, once a woman gives birth, the same care manager helps the woman make a <br />postpartum appointment with her doctor, acquire any contraception she may need while <br />adjusting to parenthood, and then transitions the woman to a primary care provider. <br />Nationwide, only about 40 percent of women see their OB/GYN within three months of giving <br />birth. <br />In all, more than 25,000 women ― almost 50 percent of all pregnant women on Medicaid in <br />North Carolina ― were part of the pregnancy medical home program in 2017. <br />—Dr. M. Kathryn Menard, one of the co-founders of the North Carolina program <br />The program appears to have achieved some modest results. Unintended pregnancies <br />among women on Medicaid have gone down slightly since 2012, from 52 percent to 45 <br />“I hope they’ll learn from our experience andcall on us so that they don’t make the samemistakes along the way.