On Thursday, Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground, secured provisions in the House Appropriations Committee’s Labor, Health and Human Services funding bill for research and funding into maternity care issues.
The provisions would support maternal mental health, the convening of experts to make recommendations for prenatal screening educational materials and new breastfeeding and pregnancy-related research.
Herrera Beutler partnered with congresswomen Lucille Roybal-Allard and Katherine Clark on the project.
“Having a new baby can be the best thing in the world, but it can also be one of the most challenging times in a mother’s life, especially when she is confronted with pregnancy complications or postpartum depression,” Herrera Beutler wrote in a statement. “I am grateful to partner with Representatives Roybal-Allard and Clark on this critical, timely and bipartisan legislation that supports better science, research and funding to improve maternal health.”
Herrera Beutler has long prioritized maternal health issues as a congresswoman.
While Herrera Beutler was in office, her daughter Abigail was born in 2013 with Potter’s Syndrome, causing her to be born without kidneys.
Her second child, Ethan, was born last year. Herrera Beutler is the ninth woman to give birth while serving in the U.S. Congress.
One provision will specifically provide funds to better screen mothers for postpartum depression. One out of seven mothers experience postpartum depression, according to a news release from Herrera Beutler’s office.
Another asks the Maternal and Child Health Bureau to convene a meeting of experts to build a consensus about how to craft educational materials about prenatal DNA screenings.
Another asks the National Institutes of Health to provide Congress with a report on all pregnancy-related research. The provisions also ask for the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to establish a national Consortium on Breastfeeding Research.
