Baby Steps in The Senate For Better Maternal Health

A bi-partisan bill was introduced Thursday, that if passed, will make serious inroads to reduce maternal mortality in 24 high-risk countries.

Exciting news is swirling The Hill. A bi-partisan bill was introduced Thursday that, if passed, has the potential to make serious inroads to reduce maternal mortality in 24 high-risk countries. Senate Bill S. 2853, titled the Accelerating Action in Maternal and Child Health Act of 2014 was introduced by Senators Coons (D-DE), Graham (R-SC) and Cardin (D-MD).

This bill’s introduction this week is significant if it potentially motivates important conversations at next week’s United Nations General Assembly annual meeting regarding next steps and critical actions necessary to reach its goal as well as within the FY16 Budget process already underway within the Administration. Here’s what the bill proposes:

• The purpose of S. 2853 legislation is to accelerate reduction in child and maternal mortality in USAID’s 24 priority countries through establishing an innovative financing mechanism to leverage private resources.
• It calls upon the President to develop a comprehensive and coordinated maternal and child health strategy with specific objectives and clear, measurable benchmarks focused on four buckets of interventions:

1. Safe motherhood and newborn survival;
2. Healthy households including water;
3. Sanitation and hygiene; nutrition; and
4. Healthy childhood (treatment and prevention of childhood illnesses)

• The bill establishes a pilot program for innovative financing mechanisms for delivering maternal, newborn, and child health interventions in the 24 priority countries, based on recommendations from the expert group panel being convened at UNGA.
• The bill does not include a specific a funding level but rather appropriates “such sums as necessary.”

What does all that mean? It means this bill is a starting point for discussion, debate and further actions that could result in significant reductions in maternal and newborn deaths. But before we pop the champagne, we anticipate there will be lots of work and many steps to go through before this bill is signed. We also expect the bill will undergo many changes in the months ahead, but if indeed it does pass, it means that 24 countries where mothers die at the highest rates may finally get the high-level, coordinated help they desperately need. Here’s hoping these baby steps will go the distance.