Community members told federal and state leaders Thursday that diverse perspectives and partnerships are necessary to support Kentuckians during and after pregnancy and improve their health.
A 2023 report by the Kentucky Department for Public Health found that 88% of maternal mortality cases were considered preventable. And the rate of maternal deaths for Black women in Kentucky was twice as high as the rate for white women in 2020.
Thursday’s event was part of the national Enhancing Maternal Health Initiative. Carole Johnson, administrator of the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, led the discussion.
“As we travel around the country, it is crystal clear to all of us that there are so many folks who've been doing this work for so long and have really been leading the fight and the effort to make sure we have healthier moms and babies,” Johnson told the group gathered at a downtown hotel.
Joshua Hawkins is a parent who joined the morning’s roundtable discussion alongside other representatives of the local organization Black Birth Justice. He spoke about how tackling maternal health issues is a collective effort – and many fathers like himself want to be part of it.
“This is my first time actually coming to an event like this,” he told LPM News. “It's an honor … that fathers are being brought to the table and we’re part of the conversation.”
Several Kentucky mothers spoke Thursday about how joining initiatives like Louisville Metro’s federally funded Healthy Start program made a life-changing difference to their families.
“It was such an inspiring event to really be here in the room with folks who have lived experience and told us the story of their pregnancies, and how they are taking that experience and making it part of their mission and their work to really ensure that other women have positive birth experiences,” Johnson said.
She also said President Joe Biden’s administration has been investing more dollars in maternal-health initiatives across the country.
Kentuckians at Thursday’s roundtable discussion talked about how their organizations are working to recruit more professionals of color as well as more bilingual people who can assist new parents.
And they emphasized the importance of making mental health care more accessible to expectant and new mothers. For example, state lawmakers passed a bipartisan law this year that establishes the Kentucky Lifeline for Moms to run a hotline health care providers can call to quickly connect patients with mental health services.
Hawkins, the father who spoke at Thursday’s roundtable discussion, said helping men address their mental health needs also can have a positive impact on their co-parents and their children. Encouraging them to face their underlying trauma can help them stop a cycle of pain from spreading down through their families.
“We want to kill these generational curses that have been plaguing the communities and these fathers and families for a very long time,” he said. “I want to put an end to the generational curses that I had to grow up with. I want to face that head-on, as much as I possibly can, and to devote myself to being a better father, a better human being, a better man.”
