McKenna Kaufman
The Georgia Rural Health Innovation Center was established in 2018 by Georgia lawmakers to address “the complex health care challenges and wellness disparities facing rural communities,” according to the Center’s website. Maternal morality is one area of their work across the state, with initiatives underway to make holistic maternal healthcare more accessible to Georgia’s rural communities.
In 2022, Georgia was one of the most dangerous places in the United States to give birth.
Ranked 43rd out of 50 states by the Center for Disease Control for its high maternal mortality rate, Georgia is one of eight southeastern states that are home to the country’s most alarming rates of pregnancy-related deaths, reflecting a dangerous trend for pregnant people living in the South.
“We know that the state of Georgia itself has one of the leading maternal mortality rates,” Michael Hokanson, public information officer for the North Central Health District of the Georgia Department of Public Health, said. “A lot of those are pregnancy-associated deaths rather than pregnancy-related deaths but of course, those numbers are still rather high compared to the rest of the country.”
Pregnancy-associated deaths refer to those that occur “during pregnancy or within one year of the end of pregnancy due to a cause that is not related to pregnancy,” while pregnancy-related deaths refer to those that happen “during pregnancy or within one year of the end of pregnancy from a pregnancy complication, a chain of events initiated by pregnancy or the aggravation of an unrelated condition by the physiologic effects of pregnancy,” according to the Georgia Department of Public Health website. The state’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee identifies and investigates maternal deaths to determine “pregnancy-relatedness” and contributing factors, Hokanson said.
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