“The Mama’s Den” podcast hosts Melanie Fiona, Codie Elaine Oliver, Ashley Chea, and Felicia LaTour welcome a very special guest on the latest episode of their show, available to stream now on all podcast platforms. Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, the Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), joins the conversation virtually from Washington D.C., where she shares her wisdom and experiences not only as a leader but also as a mother raising a 10-year-old daughter.
In the United States, Black women are less likely to receive early and adequate prenatal care. According to March of Dimes, about 75% of Black women receive early prenatal care compared to 89% of white women. Black women are also three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
These stats are one of the many reasons Brooks-Laure is devoted to her work as CMS Administrator. While chatting with the “Mama’s Den,” she passionately highlights the current administration’s commitment to tackling this crisis, emphasizing the critical need for accessible and quality healthcare for all mothers.
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“Black and brown mothers in particular have disproportionate health outcomes,” she notes. “One of the things that I always want to say whenever we talk about the disparities, is it is regardless of income. We see those differences, regardless of education and regardless of insurance coverage. I have had so many discussions with women and other advocates across the country. I’m so struck with how many women who look like me talk about their experiences with their doctors and their concerns about maternal health, regardless of their education and income.”
One of the highlights of the episode is Brooks-LaSure’s pride in the administration’s achievements, particularly in expanding postpartum coverage. The administrator says she is “most proud of getting more people enrolled in coverage and getting states to cover women 12 months after you give birth,” adding that the U.S. is almost at 46 states that have “expanded postpartum coverage.”
The conversation takes a comprehensive look at how the current CMS administration is working to improve the Medicaid program. Brooks-LaSure explains, “We, as an administration, have put out so many new requirements around the Medicaid program. So much has changed for Medicaid. I think there is a new understanding in our country about how important it is to have everybody have coverage. I would say a couple of things have changed. One, the work of President Obama of passing the Affordable Care Act, there’s a new understanding of how important Medicaid is for everyone.”
Brooks-LaSure also reveals a personal anecdote about her international experiences with maternal care, sharing that she gave birth in the United States but lived abroad for her husband’s career for almost two years when her daughter was really little.
“I got to see how other countries treat women postpartum,” she reflects. “As soon as I got there, I got enrolled in a program that teaches you how to be a mom, right? Because none of us are experts. I was with a group of women [in a class] and we were taught by a nurse once a week, and we could ask whatever questions we wanted.”
“There was support there for the first three months,” she continues. “And the women in my group, almost all of them took the entire year because they had a year of paid maternity leave. And then every company had to give you an option to stay out another year. So the women there just had more time to get to know the process.”
The hosts of “The Mama’s Den” chime in with their personal experiences, underscoring the vital importance of impactful healthcare policies. Their shared stories and mutual understanding makes for a great listen about the ongoing efforts to improve maternal health outcomes.
“I think that it is important to continue to advocate for the things that we think are right,” Brooks-LaSure asserts. “It is not only the right thing to do for our moms, for our families, but also we need to think about what it means to our economy if the people giving birth in this country are so stressed and strained that they don’t have the health outcomes that we would want.”
Listeners can find resources at medicare.gov, healthcare.gov, cms.gov and on Black Love’s comprehensive Black maternal health list.
Brooks-LaSure’s appearance on The Mama’s Den is not just informative but deeply inspiring. It serves as a reminder of the importance of continuous support and advocacy for mothers, particularly those from marginalized communities.
Make sure to catch up on all the episodes of “The Mama’s Den,” available to watch now on YouTube and stream on podcast platforms.
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