May 9, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 77 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Page H3551]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         BLACK MATERNAL HEALTH

  (Ms. UNDERWOOD asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. UNDERWOOD. Madam Speaker, this coming Sunday, millions of 
Americans will celebrate Mother's Day. While I look forward to 
celebrating Mother's Day and honoring my own mom, I know that mothers 
deserve more than to be celebrated. They deserve safe pregnancies and 
births, and healthy lives for themselves and their babies.
  In the 14th Congressional District of Illinois, we are committed to 
this cause. This past weekend, I joined constituents and Medela 
employees in McHenry County at the March for Babies 5K, which raised 
tens of thousands of dollars to improve the health of moms and babies.
  This could not come at a more critical time. The maternal mortality 
rate in the U.S. has more than doubled over the last 30 years. It is a 
crisis.
  Underlying this crisis are alarming disparities. Black women are 
nearly four times more likely than White women, and more than twice as 
likely than women of other races, to die from preventable, pregnancy-
related complications.
  This week, I joined Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley and my Black 
Maternal Health Caucus cofounder, Congresswoman Alma Adams, to address 
this crisis by introducing the Healthy MOMMIES Act.
  The Healthy MOMMIES Act would expand access to essential health 
services to improve outcomes for mothers and eliminate disparities in 
morbidity and mortality for moms.

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