Now that my youngest child is mobile, I'm learning that the best way to prevent conflict is to keep everyone busy. Bored kids = chaos! Washington should take heed. As members of Congress await a decision about the debt ceiling from their party leaders, we should urge them to use this time to do something constructive like preventing the unnecessary deaths of pregnant women.

We can't wait to act. While maternal mortality has decreased by 30% worldwide, the rate of death from pregnancy or childbirth has nearly doubled in the U.S. since 1990.[1] Furthermore, data show that African American women in the U.S. are approximately four times as likely to die during childbirth as Caucasian women even when their health status is similar.[2]

How is this possible in our nation?

Join me in demanding an answer now!  Use our one-click tool to contact your members of Congress and ask them to co-sponsor the Maternal Health Accountability Act: http://action.momsrising.org/letter/MaternalMortality2/

The Maternal Health Accountability Act (HR 894) would give states the resources they need to report and investigate all pregnancy-related deaths as well as create a panel of medical experts to review the data and recommend strategies to reduce maternal deaths. This is a critical first step to preventing so many women from dying from pregnancy-related complications in our nation. After all, without information about why women are dying, we cannot adequately respond.

Currently, hundreds of women in the U.S. die each year as a result of pregnancy and childbirth.  In fact, 49 countries around the world do a better job of preventing women from dying from pregnancy-related complications than the U.S. [3] Despite these terrible statistics, we do not have adequate information about exactly how many women are dying and why. Currently, only six states require reporting of pregnancy-related deaths and 29 states and the District of Columbia have no mechanism in place to review maternal deaths.[4]

MomsRising members have already sent more than 42,000 letters to Congress urging action on the Maternal Mortality Act. We want to nearly double our impact and generate 75,000 letters to Congress before we deliver copies of the letters later this month.

So please take one minute to contact your members of Congress now – and urge them to sign on to support this common sense legislation on behalf of women and their families:http://action.momsrising.org/letter/MaternalMortality2/

If you have already sent letters to your members of Congress on this issue, please share this blogpost with two or three friends you think might want to help. (You can use the Share buttons at the bottom of this post!)

Together, let’s use our power to ensure that no woman needlessly dies in childbirth.

Thanks for your support of all mothers!

[1] World Health Organization, Trends in maternal mortality: 1990 to 2008

[2] Tucker MJ, et al.  American Journal of Public Health. 2007;97:247–251.

[3] World Health Organization, Trends in maternal mortality: 1990 to 2008

[4] Amnesty International, Deadly Delivery: The Maternal Health Care Crisis in the U.S.A., 2011 Update