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Inspired By A Modest North Carolina Program, New Bills Aim To Lower Maternal Mortality Rates In The U.S. | HuffPost https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/maternal-mortality-rate-social-causes_us_5b87276ae4b0511db3d47c1c?4is[8/30/2018 1:42:41 PM] —Dr. M. Kathryn Menard Menard cautions that North Carolina’s declining racial disparity in maternal deaths can’t be attributed solely to the program she helped create. “The trend of narrowing the gap started before this program launched, and it continued in a positive direction,” she said. “It’s also really important to not overstate what one can see in statistics from uncommon events.” For the past 15 years, an average of about 22 women have died annually in North Carolina because of pregnancy-related causes. This means that a change of even just a handful of women in either direction could change the rates of maternal mortality and racial disparity wildly from one year to the next. “It turns out that in 2013, the ratio of white to black was one,” Menard said of the racial disparity statistics cited in Harris’ bill. “But the next year it could be three again, just because these numbers are not that big.” But she does allow that rates of maternal deaths among black women are going down. And pregnancy medical homes could be playing a role. When there’s no one else to count on, pregnancy caremanagers are there. Public health experts may be waiting for more data before recommending that this program go nationwide. But LaTosha Scott, one of North Carolina’s 400 pregnancy care managers tasked with attending to women with the riskiest pregnancies, feels from the bottom of her heart that this program needs to be in “every state, every county and every area.” It’s on social workers like Scott, 32, to help pregnant women surmount serious social issues “It’s also really important to not overstate whatone can see in statistics from uncommonevents.