Alabama officials are expanding a program that provides free autopsies in cases where women die during pregnancy or within a year of giving birth to gather information that could reduce the state’s high maternal mortality rate.

Only about half of the pregnant women and new moms who die in Alabama get autopsies, according to a press release from the Alabama Department of Public Health. A program launched in December now provides autopsies in Baldwin, Jefferson, Madison, Marshall, Mobile, Montgomery, Shelby and Walker. The program will expand statewide in the coming months, the announcement said.

Complete autopsies will be performed at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the University of South Alabama.

“Obtaining the most detailed and accurate information is critical in making determinations regarding maternal deaths and reducing maternal mortality in Alabama,” the release said.

Alabama has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the nation, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. A Maternal Mortality Review Committee found 24 deaths in 2018 and 2019 in Alabama caused by pregnancy complications. Infections caused the highest number of deaths, followed by heart problems and hemorrhage.

Of the 24 pregnancy-related deaths, 15 were preventable, committee members found. The goal of the committee is to suggest changes to practice and policy to reduce the number of pregnant women and new moms who die preventable deaths.

Alabama invested $500,000 into investigating maternal mortality after a series of articles on AL.com explored the issue in 2019.

Reporter Anna Claire Vollers found gaps in the state’s system for tracking pregnancy-related deaths. For years, Alabama lagged behind other states when it came to counting and categorizing deaths related to pregnancy.

Her reporting also focused on racial disparities that plague the state. Black mothers are up to four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than moms who are white.

Vollers chronicled the story of a Montgomery woman who nearly died and lost her twins at 26 weeks pregnant after her placenta detached from the uterus. She had been feeling symptoms of dangerously high blood pressure for weeks before the episode.

Alabama’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee has made recommendations based on its research into deaths of pregnant women and new moms. Those include extending and expanding Medicaid coverage for new moms, which happened in 2022. Increasing access to autopsies also topped the list of policy suggestions.

“Having an autopsy performed, or at minimum a toxicology report, on all maternal deaths will help us determine and better understand the causes of and contributors to maternal mortality,” the report said.