Health for mothers, babies

Millions of Missourians benefit from coordinated systems of care. The collaboration among doctors, hospitals, insurers, government and many other institutions increases the quality and availability of healthcare for all throughout our state.

The next step in improving our state's capabilities is coordinating care for all mothers and babies. Legislators are reviewing a system to define hospitals at risk-appropriate levels for maternal and neonatal care, and to create pathways of care among facilities. Perinatal Regionalization is a system to ensure high-risk pregnancies and low birth weight, preterm, or otherwise at-risk newborns receive consultation and access to risk-appropriate care.

The lack of a coordinated system is evident in the Bootheel and Missouri.

Between 2000 and 2010, there was an average of nine deaths per 1,000 births in the Bootheel -- almost twice the national average. There were 16 deaths per 1,000 births among African-America mothers, a rate higher than Colombia in South America (15) and Malaysia in southeast Asia (14).

On average, 1,100 infants are born at very low birth weight each year in Missouri and approximately 1,500 are born very preterm. More than 26 percent of these babies are not born at a healthcare facility with a properly equipped neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), which research shows increases their risk of death by up to 80 percent.

Twenty-one states have programs in place by statute; 15 additional states use informal systems.

Help us provide mothers and babies with the right care, at the right time, and at the right place.

Cynthia Dean, CEO, Missouri Bootheel Regional Consortium Inc.