On the last day of the 2024 legislative session, state lawmakers passed a bipartisan maternal health bill known as the omnibus bill.

The bill ramps up how the state reviews maternal deaths and increases opportunities for women to get health insurance as soon as they become pregnant.

Doctors at the University of Kentucky are doing their part, too, as Kentucky editions.

June Lefler reports of federal grant will help hospitals better care for pregnant patients.

When a woman in Kentucky dies before or shortly after giving birth.

The Kentucky Maternal Morbidity and Mortality Task Force asks why.

The causes of maternal mortality can be attributed to pregnancy related complications, or they can be related to other complications such as accidents, homicides and even overdoses.

And when we look at the causes of death in our state, more commonly, they're coming from that latter group that consists of accidents and overdoses and homicides than they are being related to obstetrical complications.

Kentucky's women fare worse than most.

The state has the second highest rate of maternal deaths, but the state says most of these deaths are preventable.

If a woman's experience with intimate partner violence or substance use can be addressed.

I think there are already so many stressors out there that these individuals are facing and not just I mean, with all of it will be there.

But for me, especially for someone who has a substance use disorder, there are a lot of barriers out there and being able to speak from experience, being able to share that with them, I think really makes a difference.

Bethany Wilson works with pregnant people outside of the patient room.

She says her last pregnancy was a turning point.

She enrolled in a program at UK health care, specifically for pregnant people with substance use disorder.

I ended up engaging in the program, and that's really what I got sober now.

I've been sober for over eight years.

With the $5.2 million federal grant.

UK doctors will lift up maternal care across the state.

We are not just research, reaching and trying to find new ways to treat pregnancy.

We're trying to take what we know and apply it to all the different delivery hospitals across the state of Kentucky.

No one has to reinvent the wheel.

The federal government has developed best practices to make births safer and improve outcomes for moms and babies.

A group of guidelines that are advocated by several important professional societies, and those are called the AIM bundles.

And the AIM bundles are targeting particular adverse pregnancy outcomes, such as bleeding.

Such as infection.

Such as substance use disorder.

And these AIM bundles break down the care that's being provided to ensure quality and reduce the frequency of of some of those worst cases.

The State maternal health innovation program will span five years.

Dr. John O'Brien says ideally fewer maternal serious complications and deaths will be evident from state and federal data in the near future.

For Kentucky Edition, I'm June Leffler.

Some of that work will happen outside of hospitals, too.

The Kentucky Maternal Morbidity and Mortality Taskforce welcomes grassroots groups to join the project.

If you're interested in helping out.

You can contact UK.