Merck For Mothers

These are sobering statistics:

• More than 50,000 women nearly die from complications of pregnancy or childbirth in the United States every year.

• The rate of deaths from complications of pregnancy and childbirth has nearly doubled in the past 20 years — at present, it’s about 1,000 women every year. Most of these deaths are preventable!

Now, a new initiative has been created to empower women and save lives. Merck for Mothers is a 10-year, $500 million program that is working toward creating a world where no woman has to die giving life. Merck is focusing on developing new, more accessible technologies to manage two of the leading causes of maternal mortality — postpartum hemorrhaging (excessive bleeding after childbirth) and pre-eclampsia (high blood pressure) — and to provide critical solutions.

I had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Priya Agrawal, an obstetrician/gynecologist and the Executive Director of Merck for Mothers. She travels around the globe talking about how these serious health issues impact women around the world and here in the United States.
 
“It is important to focus on the fact that even one death is too many,” said Dr. Agrawal. “Most people think this is a problem in the third world. But in the past twenty years, the rate of maternal mortality has gone up, not down, in the United States. It’s unacceptable in this day and age that 1,000 women die each year in this country from something that is completely preventable.”

Merck for Mothers is working at three levels to help women in the United States. With the maternal mortality rate in our country climbing (we now rank 47th in the world, behind nearly all other industrialized nations), Merck for Mothers is starting programs that address both maternal death as well as severe complications during pregnancy and childbirth. These programs are divided into three areas:

1. Strengthening community initiatives to make sure women get the right care. Having access to affordable, quality care located in their community ensures that high-risk women receive care before, during, and after pregnancy.
2. Implementing standard approaches to address obstetric emergencies and enhancing data collection and reviews to better understand why maternal deaths are occurring.
3. Advancing maternal health using awareness and advocacy. Increasing awareness of maternal mortality is key to making strides to save women’s lives. As awareness of this tragic issue grows, so will education. Advocacy efforts include contributing a business mindset to current initiatives by including the public and private sectors.

One of Merck’s partners, Baltimore Healthy Start, has been working with Merck for Mothers to not only improve prenatal care but also women’s general health.

Alma Roberts, President and CEO of Baltimore Healthy Start, told me that her program, one of the country’s oldest perinatal programs, has been working with very high risk women during and after their pregnancies to help improve birth outcomes.

“What we realized was that we had to deal holistically with women—and that means that being focused just on pregnant women wasn’t sufficient. We had to really deal with the health and well-being of women. Many of the women that we see at BHS have conditions like depression before pregnancy. We’re concentrating on bringing these women the resources that they'll need to improve their health before they become pregnant. We also have successful group programs where women can share experiences with their peers, and Merck for Mothers is allowing us to expand the peer support model, which is proven to reduce maternal death,” said Roberts.

Merck for Mothers has also partnered with groups in California, New Jersey, New York, Georgia, and Pennsylvania, focusing on regions where rates of maternal deaths are disproportionately high. To learn more, visit www.merckformothers.com.