Senator Natalie Murdock hosted the Black Maternal Health Day of Action, gathering Senator Gladys Robinson, House Representative Zack Hawkins, and almost 100 doctors, doulas, midwives, and advocates.
The MOMnibus package they advocated for contains eight reproductive-care bills focused on improving health outcomes for moms and babies.
Jenkins Lawhorn is a certified nurse-midwife and faculty member at Frontier Nursing University. She spoke at the conference about Senate Bill 908, known as the Dr. Janell Green Smith Maternal Health Accountability Act. It’s aimed at making midwifery more accessible by expanding accepted midwife licenses and improving maternal health accountability.
Lawhorn said that, if made law, SB908 would allow trained professionals to help underserved communities. She emphasized that every licensed midwife has met rigorous certification standards, and that midwifery is both evidence-based and safe.
Overall, Lawhorn said the current approach to maternal healthcare in the state is deeply biased and racist. She said, “Every study shows you that Black women are listened to less often. Black women’s pain is less managed. What’s the difference?”
North Carolina’s most recent maternal mortality review report presents information gathered by the state Department of Health and Human Services in 2018 to 2019. It found that bias and discrimination were contributing factors in about 70% of maternal deaths.
Lawhorn said that racial and gendered bias creates fear around speaking about Black birth work publicly. However, she said people spoke up at the conference anyway.
She said about the MOMnibus package, “Everyone is just excited about what this could look like. We don’t have a budget, but knowing that it could serve so many constituents, even though we’re on version 3.5 now, the hope is there for it to be filed over and over again, because there’s no reason not to. If you don’t, you’re saying, ‘I don’t care.’”
The MOMnibus 3.5 bill is currently in the Senate Committee on Appropriations/Base Budget.