Proposed legislation would expand access to health services

By Cris Villalonga-Vivoni Record-Journal staff

The national maternal mortality rate for non-Hispanic Black women was nearly three times higher than that for non-Hispanic women in 2020.

In Connecticut, state health officials reported that babies born to Black mothers were significantly more likely to die before their first birthday than babies born to white women in 2017. Babies born to Black mothers are also twice as likely as babies from white mothers to have a low birth weight, under six pounds, which can lead to severe health and development issues.

“In our state and in this nation, we have a maternal health crisis where Black birthing people are suffering consequences more than any other birthing population,” state Public Health Commissioner Dr. Manisha Juthani said testifying before the legislature’s Public Health Committee, March 14.

The committee hearing was held to discuss Gov. Ned Lamont’s proposed Senate bill that would implement numerous statutes and programs to increase access to maternal health services.

SB 986 hopes to address these disparities by creating a license category for birth centers, establishing state certification processes for doulas and midwives and opening a universal nursing visitation program for new parents.

Licensed birth centers

Unlike a maternity ward in a hospital, birth centers are freestanding healthcare facilities licensed to provide prenatal, labor, delivery and postpartum care to persons with low-risk pregnancies, according to the bill. If passed, SB 986 would create a new license category to open more birthing centers throughout the state, said Juthani. “This will allow birth centers to fill both geographic gaps that may exist within our state and also provide lower cost and family-friendly opportunities for earning people to have less medicalized births in our state,” she said in her testimony.

The Connecticut Childbirth and Women’s Center is the only standalone birthing center in the state.

Located in Danbury, the center is staffed by midwives and focuses on natural childbirths, according to its website. The two-story clinic has numerous birthing rooms with queen-sized beds and a big bathroom with a Jacuzzi tub.

Birthing centers would be licensed through the state and may have specific service guidelines. Juthani explained that each certified birth center would work with nearby hospitals, in case emergency care was needed.

Committee Co-Chair, state Sen. Saud Anwar, D-South Windsor, raised concerns about the mandatory relationship between the birth centers and the larger healthcare system.

Anwar, a physician, noted that the legislation could lead to unintended selection bias as the major hospitals would receive more complicated pregnancy cases. Similarly, the Connecticut Hospital Association submitted testimony saying that the bill’s language doesn’t mandate regulations and protocols for the license. Instead, they write that the language needs to be updated to ensure that “mandatory clinical guidelines” are met.

State Rep. Liz Linehan, DCheshire, told the RecordJournal she fully supports birthing centers but wants to