“Exhausted from labor, I had no idea what to even say or ask. I never ended up receiving an overview of the process, nor any information on what I should expect or do post-partum. I was in the hospital for four days post op. Four days of excruciating pain due to being undermedicated. Four days of my mother begging nurses & doctors to pay attention to me and bring me some much-needed relief, because these doctors like many others in the medical field, held the dangerous & biased belief that Black women don’t experience as much pain as white women.” - Patrisse Cullors, Co-Founder, Black Lives Matter & MomsRising Senior Fellow for Maternal Mortality

The U.S. is the most dangerous place to give birth in the developed world. [1] And like Patrisse, far too many women, especially Black women, have troubling experiences with maternal care and face debilitating or deadly maternal health outcomes.

More U.S. women are dying from pregnancy or childbirth complications today than in recent history, and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an estimated 60 percent of these deaths and complications are preventable. [2]

**Sign on now to tell your members of Congress to support the Maternal Care Access and Reducing Emergencies (CARE) Act (S.3363) and the Modernizing Obstetric Medicine Standards (MOMS) Act (S.3392)

For every woman who dies in childbirth in the US, there are 70 women who nearly die. And in the past five decades, Black women have consistently experienced an almost fourfold greater risk of death from pregnancy complications than White women. This increased risk is independent of age, parity, or education. [3]

This is where your voice can make a difference! Critical legislation that addresses maternal mortality and morbidity and the racial disparities driving these number have been introduced in Congress, the Maternal Care Access and Reducing Emergencies (CARE) Act (S.3363) and the Modernizing Obstetric Medicine Standards (MOMS) Act (S.3392).

**Sign our petition! Ask Congress to address our nation’s maternal health crisis by passing these important bills!

The Maternal Care Access and Reducing Emergencies (CARE) Act (S.3363) looks to create two new grant programs - one for implicit bias training (which has real-world implications for pregnant people of color. The National Academy of the Sciences found that medical students still held onto the mythology that Black people’s bodies could withstand more pain than white people) [4] and another for pregnancy medical home (PMH) programs which will help deliver health care services to pregnant women and new moms. [5]

The Modernizing Obstetric Medicine Standards (MOMS) Act (S.3392) would provide new funding to hospitals with obstetrics and gynecology practices that want to improve their response to pregnancy-related and pregnancy-associated complications by implementing standardized best practices that could save lives. [6]

To move these bills forward we urgently need your help. Members of Congress need to hear from you to prioritize proactive solutions that will save the lives of pregnant women.

**Add your name to our open letter to Congress to urge them to stand up for the health of pregnant women in our nation!

And please help us spread the word! The more people who sign, the bigger our impact. Forward this message to your friends and family, and post this link on Facebook and Twitter: action.momsrising.org/sign/urge-congress-address-racial-disparities-maternal-health/

Together we are a powerful voice for the health of moms.